Of Martial Artists and Dolls
by RanChan
Summary: Story inspired by a WFROSE challenge. One day, a young girl and her dolly were carted into the Tendo Dojo by a Panda, All hell broke loose. Chapter 14 up. The Gymnastics competition draws near
1. Ready, Steady, Go, is that a Dolly?

Chapter 1:

Ready, Steady, Go, is that a Dolly???

The usually bustling Tendo dojo was in a more somber mood that early Monday morning. Where the eldest daughter would be cooking breakfast at this time, she was in the family room wearing what most would call her Sunday best. It was that letter her father had got in the mail a few days earlier, there were only three words to it, but those three words echoed in the back of her mind. She sat quietly next to her father, though in the back of her mind, she had to admit that it felt odd to not be cooking, well, at least for this time of the morning.

While the middle daughter would usually be settling finances, or plotting up ways to reconnect herself with her most beloved money, on this morning, she was dressed politely in a business suit, as if she were dressed to finish an important business deal with a very important client. That simply wasn't true. Those same three words that had her elder sister in her Sunday best, had called her to her most professional attire, and persona. She had to admit, she was feeling a bit uneasy not balancing the dojo's books for the morning, but sacrifices had to be made.

The youngest daughter however, had not heard the same call her sisters had. While her two sisters sat in the family room with her father, she was in the dojo, practicing her katta and otherwise going through her morning routine. There was only one thing important to her, and that was her training. Three words, which had her sisters acting as if they were completely different people, had absolutely no meaning to her. She sighed a bit as she finished through one of her forms and wrapped a towel about her neck. She couldn't help but wonder what it was exactly that those three words, "Ranma is Coming" meant.

Actually, it wasn't long after that her answer would be coming. A few blocks away from the Tendo dojo, a large panda was dragging a girl over his shoulder. The redheaded girl in question was kicking and screaming in an almost futile attempt to break herself free of the large bear's grasp. People passing by didn't offer a second glance, as the scene was far too odd, and unusual for the streets of Nerima.  Many thought it was some sort of sick publicity stunt, one they wanted no part of if they could help it. Still, seeing the Panda and the girl was like seeing a really bad wreck, people couldn't help but stare, at least until the unusual pair had passed through the archway into the Tendo Dojo.

"That must be Ranma!" The middle daughter jumped to her feet excited hearing the doorbell. She was rather curious about the man her father had promised one of his daughters to wed. She'd hoped he was handsome, and had a keen business sense, something to keep her interest.

"I hope he's older then me." The eldest daughter smiled watching both her sister and her father head towards the door. She was more proper then her slightly younger sister, and felt it her duty as a potential bride, to show her obedience to her father and her potential fiancé, by waiting in the family room until they could be formally introduced.

The youngest daughter meanwhile, was just finishing with her bath. Her father had demanded that she at least meet the young man. As much as she was against arranged marriage, especially in this day and age, she couldn't disobey her father. She still didn't like the idea of having to meet a boy, she never was fond of boys to begin with. After all, boys were jerks, and after what she was consistently put through, she'd have been more then happy to drop that subject altogether. It was about that time when her thoughts were drifting that she heard her slightly older sister scream. She rushed to finish getting dressed and headed out to the family room where she was greeted by a rather strange sight.

"What is the meaning of this?" The Tendo family patriarch demanded as he looked upon the panda, and the redhead that it had just set in front of him. He was expecting his good friend Genma, and his son Ranma. What he'd gotten, were a panda, and a redheaded girl. He was quite understandably confused.

The redhead sighed a bit as the panda gently set her down in front of the older Tendo patriarch. She clutched an object tightly to her chest as she looked to the ground and muttered almost under her breath. "I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry about this.

The entire Tendo household was in and of itself in a complete uproar. The eldest sister had finally decided to check up on her father, and sister, since they never did return to the family room with their guests. The youngest daughter had also joined the others in the entry hall, she too was taken aback by the odd sights. They had all gathered just in time to hear the young redhead stake a claim at the name Ranma Saotome, the same name of the "boy" that was to be engaged to one of them. The three Tendo sisters were in utter confusion, could it be that their father was that kind of man to engage his beloved daughters to another woman. The Tendo patriarch was meanwhile just as confused, his good friend Genma had told him he had a son. But, he still was unsure of things. He gave Ranma a quick glance over, then scratched his chin thinking before wrapping his arms about the redhead.

"Ranma my…. Boy?"  He was certain now, as he jumped back in shock, that "boy's" chest was far too soft and cushioned to be a boy.

The middle daughter examined the guest a bit more closely then reached out to grab the redhead's chest, and rubbed at it tentatively to test a theory. "What were you thinking dad? 100% woman."

Ranma closed her eyes and sighed. "Please stop that."

The youngest daughter jumped in and pushed her slightly older sister away from the redheaded girl. "Nabiki! She's our guest, what are you thinking?" She then turned to the girl with a smile. "I'm Akane, wanna be friends?" She smiled, then blinked a bit noticing what Ranma had clutched to her chest. She pried a bit to gaze at it closer then had to ask, "What have you got there?"

Ranma looked up and stepped back slightly, backing up into a rather sad looking panda, the girl looked up at the tears welling in the panda's eyes then smiled a bit back at Akane, and held up the object, which looked a bit like a little girl's dolly. "It's my dolly, Chise-chan" Ranma beamed a bright smile then cuddled the dolly closer to her chest as she nodded an acceptance of Akane's friendship proposal.

The eldest sister smiled seeing the doll. "How adorable, she still has her dolly. Shall I prepare you and your doll some tea?"

Ranma smiled and nodded. The eldest sister seemed the one who most identified with her, and tea sounded rather nice at this point. She gave Akane a brief glance, and a smile. She then looked at the Tendo patriarch, who was crying about how his dear friend had ruined him, and finally she looked to Nabiki, who had seemed to be calculating upon something. Ranma thought it better not to ask, and just keep following the eldest sister for some tea.

"Oh, Ranma, why don't you go take a quick bath. You must be tired after such a long journey, and a nice warm bath is always a good way to relax." The eldest sister smiled a charming, heart-warming smile at the girl, though her suggestion seemed to have a power all it's own, one that no one could go against.

Ranma, as much as she'd rather not, agreed to bathe. She just couldn't say no to the kindhearted girl who offered her tea. Absently holding her doll to her chest she looked at the girl. "Uhm, where is the bath?"

The eldest sister stopped, turned to face Ranma, and smiled. "Oh, just have Akane show you."

Akane would protest, but no one could go against her older sister's kind heart. "Alright Kasumi, I'll show her where it is."

Ranma silently followed the youngest Tendo daughter. Eventually she was lead to the bathroom, where the pair parted ways. Inside, Ranma began to bathe, the cold water made her shiver a bit. She was used to such cold baths however, her and her father often had to bathe in streams or rivers during their travels. The warm bath to come however would prove quite relaxing, and the buxom young redhead eagerly anticipated it as she began to bathe Chise-chan.

"Nabiki, you should go join Ranma in the bath" The eldest Tendo sister smiled at her slightly younger, money driven sister.

"Why would I want to do something like that?" The middle Tendo replied almost as if to say she was too good for the common folk.

"Oh come now Nabiki, you don't make many friends, and that Ranma seems like a nice girl." The youngest of the three smiled as she had her say, having just finished showing the redhead to the bath.

"Et tu Akane?" The middle sister sighed and slinked up towards the stairs. She seemed to always lose the battle when her sisters teamed up on her, not that anyone ever won when going against Kasumi.

Ranma sighed as he poked his head up out of the warm bath water and looked at Chise-chan. "I hope pops knows what he's doing." He looked around the bathroom for a moment and thought to himself how nice it was to be able to relax a bit. He hadn't had much time to himself recently, not with the Journey. He'd had far less time alone with Chise-chan, due to the fact his father absolutely abhorred the bond the boy had with her. "Are you enjoying the bath too Chise-chan?" The pigtailed boy giggled slightly, as if responding to a comment made by the doll. He stood to get out of the bath, he was ready to enjoy the tea Kasumi was so thoughtfully preparing.

It was at that moment that Nabiki Tendo would step into the scene again. Ranma blinked the moment the door flew wide open, had he been aware enough to react, Chise-chan might have avoided a rather "pleasant" view of just how manly the boy was. Unfortunately for Nabiki, she missed that show, instead she was greeted by the sight of a red-faced, black haired boy, with Ranma's doll covering his masculinity. Many thoughts raced through her head, most of which were illegal throughout most civilized nations. Her body however responded on it's own. She silently stepped back out of the bathroom, dressed herself, and slunk into the hall. There was a moment of silence as she took a deep breath. She readied herself, but stopped just shy of a scream.

Calmly, Nabiki headed back downstairs, where she silently grabbed her youngest sister by the back collar of her shirt. "Come now, no questions." She spoke with a tone reserved for the most sinister of Ice Queen moments, Akane knew better then to argue with that tone, as she was silently dragged up the stairs towards the bathroom.

Akane was pushed into the bathroom just as Ranma's male side, complete with doll in hand, was stepping out. At that moment, Akane knew why she'd been dragged up here. Nabiki wasn't much of a fighter, however, Akane could defeat most, if not all opponents she'd face. Her face became twisted and red with anger as she reeled back her right hand to hit the male intruder. "You dirty pervert!"

Somehow, the male form avoided the fastest punch Akane could throw as he rolled around her. He was now running on instinct, and angry girl with speed like that meant trouble. With an enraged, raven-haired tomboy on his tail, Ranma ran all through the house, finally coming to hide behind the Tendo patriarch. Akane skidded to a stop before her father. "What is the meaning of this Akane, how dare you be so rude to our guest."

Akane blinked a moment, noticing a strange man to her father's left, then glaring at the pigtailed boy hiding behind him. "Guest? That pervert?" She tightened her fist as if to make further threat to the doll holding boy. "He was in our bathroom playing with Ranma's doll!"

The other man in the room spoke up, he'd had enough of sitting on the sideline. "That's because that boy is my son, Ranma Saotome." The older man frowned as he cried profusely. "It shames your father to see you like this my boy. A grown man, playing with dolls in the bath."

"Then, what about the redheaded girl that introduced herself earlier?"

Ranma meekly poked his head out from behind the Tendo patriarch, and attempted to smile. "That was me."

An hour had passed, and the pair had told the entire Tendo family their story. Apparently, water was the key to unlocking the curse that both the balding old man, and the black-haired pigtailed boy were under. While Ranma became a beautiful young woman when cold water was splashed upon him, his father became a Panda.

"Oh my, so that's how it is." Kasumi smiled and looked at Ranma. "It's so nice to see a man secure enough with himself to play with dollies."

Akane and Nabiki cringed. If they didn't act fast, one of them might have to marry that freak named Ranma. Akane scooted away from the table slightly, then stood behind her eldest sister and placed a hand on her shoulder with a halfhearted smirk.

The Tendo patriarch meanwhile decided to make his presence known. "Well then Ranma, it seems your troubles aren't so bad. I have three lovely daughters. One of them will be your bride, anyone you choose."

Nabiki joined Akane behind Kasumi, she would have no part of being chosen for Ranma, especially not after seeing what bath time with Dolly meant. "I think Kasumi is the obvious choice"

Akane nodded in agreement. "Yes, I think Kasumi would be the perfect wife for Ranma. They both have a tender side." She winced slightly over the word tender, but anything that would keep the pervert from her was well worth doing. She did however wish she'd worded that a bit differently, especially after seeing the look of death in Nabiki's eyes.

The Ice Queen was about ready to rip the head off her youngest sister. There were just some comments that should never be made, especially after what her poor virgin eyes had been forced to endure for a full ten seconds in the bathroom. It wouldn't have been nearly so long except for the fact that Ranma was built, the doll added shock value, and well, she was expecting to be greeted by a friendly-faced young girl, not a fine specimen of manhood with a doll. She opened her mouth to retort to Akane but was cut off.

"Well then, let's all have some tea then I'll make lunch." Kasumi could see the tension brewing between her sisters, then passed a smile towards Ranma. There was just something about the boy that made her smile, maybe it was just the doll, but it didn't matter, she thought it was sweet.

Ranma in the meantime, sat at the table in shock. Suddenly, he had a fiancé, his father never informed him of the reason for their visit to the Tendo dojo, merely that they were going. A moment passed and the shock wore off before Ranma looked down to his doll. "What has pops gotten us into Chise-chan?


	2. Blue Thunder, Boy Blunder

Chapter 2:

Blue Thunder, Boy Blunder 

Ranma sighed as he walked upon the chain-link fence above and behind Akane. She seemed much less then thrilled to not only have to live with the gender-changing, doll carrying pervert, but also have to walk with him and attend school with him as well. "Honestly Ranma, it's bad enough you still play with dolls, it's even worse what you do with them in the bath, but carr…"

Ranma's voice picked up at that point, cutting off Akane without a second thought, as he landed in front of Akane, doll of course, in hand. "You got it all wrong Akane. I put Chise-chan there so Nabiki wouldn't see me. I have my modesty." Ranma sighed though, he knew Akane had already made up her mind about him. He was a sick pervert with a doll fetish, and at least for now, he had no way to change her mind.

Akane pushed past Ranma with a sigh of her own. She'd already figured that much out, she knew he wasn't like that, but it seemed appropriate, after all, she was more inclined to side with her sister in this case. Still, she wasn't about to let on. "Hurry up or we'll be late Ranma."

"Late? But we still have ten minutes to get there."

"You'll understand when we get there why we have to hurry." Akane replied half-heartedly as she began to go through some stretch exercises while she walked. Another moment passed, Akane stopped stretching and took a runner's ready position. Ranma blinked a bit and watched as she then sprinted off in the direction of the school, he had no choice but to follow her lead, do the same, and fall into a dead sprint, as to not be left behind.

"What's the big idea running off like that?"

Akane didn't answer as she neared the school. Inside the gates came a shout from a large student dressed as a Sumo-wrestler. "She's here! Everyone get ready, and charge!" With that, Ranma saw about forty to fifty male students rush out the gate to "greet" Akane. Most were carrying weapons, or looked to be trained fighters, and all had a bloodlust in their eyes. Ranma blinked quietly.

Ranma then saw the first attack on Akane coming, and without thinking darted in the way to block it. While he managed the block, the back of his head caught the full force behind Akane's fist. One point Akane. Ranma staggered a bit, then shook off the hefty blow from the raven-haired martial artist behind him. Ranma tossed Chise-chan into the air, and dropped into a quick, powerful, but brief stance. Akane blinked seeing Ranma step into the fray. Ranma cocked his head to the side briefly, popping his neck, then launched his fist at incredible speed into the first of Akane's attackers. The first attacker doubled over in pain as he was shot backwards into the remaining crowd with incredible force. The three boys who caught him were buried under him on the ground. They were knocked unconscious quite easily from the force at which the first boy hit them. Then in a movement so fast that only two pairs of eyes could follow him, Ranma had attacked, and knocked out the remaining force of Akane's violent admirers. Akane quietly blinked again as Ranma stepped back in front of her smiling, then caught his doll.

"Ranma, you idiot!" Akane slapped the pigtailed boy hard across the cheek, then pushed past him. "I didn't ask for, or need your help, you jerk!" She then began to storm off towards class.

Hurricane Akane, however, was stopped by a bokkan wielding man. "What's this? A man coming to the aid of the fair princess, Akane Tendo?" The samurai wanna-be looked briefly at Akane, then pushed his way over the unconscious pile of bodies moving steadily towards Ranma. "Speak knave, who are you, and what is your relation with Akane Tendo?"

Ranma blinked at what he perceived to be an idiot. "I am…"

"Silence fool, is it not the custom to give one's own name first?" Akane groaned watching the stick waving idiot challenge Ranma. After the impressive display Ranma had just put on, she couldn't help but feel rather sorry for the kendo captain. "I am known as the thorn less rose who took the kendo world by storm. My swordsmanship is feared all throughout Japan, where the force behind my blade has given me the name Blue Thunder of Furinken High, Tatewaki Kuno, age seventeen."

One of the girls in the crowd was overheard as Kuno finished his introduction. "Blue Thunder? Wasn't he calling himself The Sword of Might last week?"

A boy next to her nodded his head then added his own commentary on the situation. "Yeah, and the week before that it was Great Samurai Kuno, The Destroyer."

Ranma stood before Kuno completely stupefied. He'd been right in his assumption, this guy was an idiot. "Uh yeah… I'm uh, Ranma Saotome."

"Silence knave, for I care not what your name is, only why you have come to the defense of the fair princess, Akane Tendo."

Ranma sighed, he didn't have time for this. "Look, Kuno was it, I don't have time for this right now, I'm gonna be late for my first day of class."

"You won't answer me, you vile cretin? Very well, as an upperclassmen, I will exercise my right, and beat an answer out of you." Kuno raised his bokkan and began to stab at Ranma, who managed to dodge each blow as if the wooden sword wasn't moving. "Stand still you cretin!"

After more then one hundred stabs had flown by, and missed Ranma, he'd had enough. Ranma raised his foot, and sent Kuno flying backwards into the school. Kuno continued through the door, and further until a well placed wall stopped him. In a scene that looked like it had been pulled from a Bugs Bunny cartoon, Kuno fell forward hitting the ground, the wall meanwhile held the kendoist's imprint. Ranma blinked a bit, he didn't think he'd hit Kuno that hard, oh well, it didn't matter, that was one less idiot in his way. "Come Chise-chan, we still have time to make it to class before the bell." With that he clutched his doll close and headed into the school.

Akane followed behind and looked at Ranma. After her first meeting, she hadn't pegged him as a fighter, after all, he'd only dodged her attacks and ran. Now she'd seen a whole other side to him, one with power and skill. "Hey, uh, Ranma. You know, you didn't have to kick Kuno that many times."

Ranma shrugged, he'd only hit the bokkan wielding idiot fifty three times. "He attacked me first, would you rather I simply stand there and not fight back?"

"About that, why did you come to my rescue?" She was still a bit furious about Ranma's interference in her morning workout, but she didn't let that show, instead she was smiling a bit. No one had ever stepped up for her, like Ranma had. Actually, those who might have tried protecting her were the ones attacking her.

"Cause it's not right for that many guys to attack a lady, even if she is a tomboy." Ranma stepped into the classroom, set his book bag down, and sat in an empty desk.

Akane had stopped outside the classroom at Ranma's comment. She couldn't help the severe redness that came across her face just as the bell signaling the start of class had rang.

"Miss Tendo, you're late. Stand in the hall" The teacher's voice called from the classroom. "Class we have a new student…"

Akane blinked, then twitched. She was late to class and being punished because Ranma just happened to make the right comment at the wrong time. "Ranma you idiot!!!"

The entire school stood still and turned towards the direction of Akane's scream before returning to their regularly scheduled classes. Ranma shuddered however, as he felt a cold chill streak down his spine. Something about that scream sent him into a feeling of impending doom.

Kuno awoke in the nurse's office, bandages covering most of his body, except for his face, which held a size nine-shoe imprint courtesy of one pigtailed boy with a doll. Nabiki blinked as the kendoist shot up from the bed. "Curse that fowl Ranma. How dare he take such a cheap shot when I was talking."

"Actually, you were attempting to stab him with your sword Kuno-baby." Nabiki commented wryly as she put a damp cloth against his head.

"Still, one can not deny that he is a powerful martial artist. A worthy adversary for the heart of my goddess Akane." Kuno stood and raised his fist to the air, then looked at Nabiki. "Why are you here?"

"I'm a nurse's aid first period. Anyways, would you like to know about Ranma?" She pulled the damp cloth away from Kuno's head and stood to look through the medicine cabinet. Kuno wouldn't admit it, but he could probably use a pain reliever. "Here, swallow these"

"You know of this vile Ranma? Please, tell me Nabiki."

"It'll cost you"

"Name your price witch."

"Five Thousand yen, and you'll take me to the ice cream parlor after school, for the witch comment." She smirked, she was a shrewd negotiator, especially when it came to matters of Akane, or, at least when the buyer of said info on Akane was Kuno.

"Five Thousand and ice cream??? That's robbery, I won't pay"

"Then I guess you don't want to know about Ranma." She had him.

"Very well Nabiki, it's a deal then, tell me about this Ranma." He'd already handed her the small wad of cash with an almost dreadful sigh.

"He's my sister Kasumi's fiancé, and he's staying at out dojo."

"That beast is living under the same roof as Akane? How dare he. Oh my poor beloved Akane, it must be like this." He was picturing in his mind Ranma dressed as a wolf, ready to pounce the poor, unsuspecting Akane in sheepskin. "How wretched, Ranma must pay for this travesty."

"Kuno-baby, you're an idiot."

"Hey, uh, Akane, why were you late to class this morning?" Ranma came out into the hall just as first period had ended and looked at Akane, who was sitting on the floor, her knees to her chest, her arms wrapped about them, and her head resting upon her knees.

She quickly looked up at Ranma, then turned away blushing heavily. "N-n-nothing!!!" She couldn't believe herself, getting so nervous over a simple thing like a guy coming to her rescue. She couldn't believe it, that total jerk had her blushing like some love struck idiot.

"Fine, if you won't tell me, at least tell Chise-chan." The doll was shoved into Akane's face.

Akane blinked at the sudden appearance of the doll, almost shrieked, then shot to her feet and slapped at Ranma. "Ranma you jerk!!!"

"Watch thine hands fowl beast. To think, a monster like you lives under the same roof as Akane." Ranma blinked as he turned to see Kuno. Akane's hand stopped a mere inch from hitting Ranma as she turned to look at Kuno as well. Hearing Kuno's mention of their living arrangement, the pair immediately tried to shush him, but to no avail. "Were that not enough, to be engaged at your age. This I cannot allow."

Ranma and Akane both blinked at this one before falling to the floor.

Students who had been wandering the hallway stopped hearing Kuno. One spoke out. "Akane's engaged?"

Another student chimed in. "I thought she hated boys."

A third spoke up. "It's that new guy, the one who beat up Kuno earlier."

"Prepare to die Ranma Saotome." Kuno ran towards the pig-tailed boy, bokkan raised.

"Hey, this is not the place to be fighting." Ranma turned tail and started to run through the halls, eventually leading Kuno to a window. Kuno had followed, as had a good portion of the student body of Furinken High. "Follow me, we'll take it outside." Ranma jumped out the window, then tucked his doll in his shirt.

"I will follow you to hell to slay you demon." Kuno as well jumped out the window.

"They jumped out the window? But this is the third floor" A random student shouted as he looked out the window.

The girl next to him looked out the window and smiled. "It's ok, there's a pool out there."

Akane blinked, then ran away from the crowd before disappearing, she knew Ranma and water didn't mix, and he'd already saved her once, so at least she had a chance to repay the favor.

Ranma looked down as he fell. "Ah crap! It had to be water!!!"


	3. Sudden Storm of Stupidity

Chapter 3:

Sudden Storm of Stupidity

The softness of the water was both a mixed blessing, and an unending curse for Ranma as Chise-chan floated carelessly to the surface. The rest of the class only saw Kuno float up to the surface shortly after Ranma's doll, then saw the doll vanish. For the sake of the plot however,once the water had taken it's toll on Ranma, Kuno reached for him, coming away with a quick grope of something rather feminine. That touch sat in Ranma's mind for a moment, and gestated as his release on Chise-chan was seen by his classmates, and she floated to the surface. Ranma in the mean time wrapped her arms around Kuno's neck, drove towards the pool bottom, and even in the water slammed Kuno's head into it hard enough to force the kendoist unconscious, then in a moment of compassion, spun him so that he'd surface face up. No use letting him drown, Ranma wasn't a killer. Finally, faster then his classmates could see, and without even a splash, Ranma had shot from the water grabbing Chise-chan, and ran for the courtyard, and up a tree.

Akane had reached the courtyard in time to see Ranma shoot up the tree, then followed him to it.

Kuno sighed a bit, floating face up in the pool, he recalled the fall into the pool, and grabbing what he thought had been Ranma. Something wasn't right. "I could have sworn that was a female." His brain continued to process the events, again leading him to that same conclusion. Eventually he swam to the side of the pool and crawled out of it, then fished out his Bokkan. "That has to be it, Saotome, do you think you can leave someone else in your place and escape that easily?"

Ranma was up in a tree wringing her pants dry, Chise-chan leaning against the trunk dripping dry herself. "Can you believe that jerk Chise-chan? He didn't have to squeeze me so hard..." Ranma sighed a bit. "So much for a semi-normal life, I guess he knows my secret now."

"Do you stop thinking when challenged? I mean honestly Ranma, throwing yourself into the pool like that."

"What do you know?"

"Guess you don't want this then" Akane held up a kettle of obviously steaming water, then tossed it to Ranma, her aim a little off, and nearly forcing the now girl Ranma off balance. "Anyways, I think that about makes us eve..." Akane was cut off by the sound of footsteps, and the appearence of Kuno yet again. "Hurry up and change back, Kuno's coming."

She moved away from the tree and into Kuno's path, then took up a fighting stance, Ranma, still trying to recover her balance hadn't yet seen this. "Alright Kuno, I challenge you" Akane looked serious, more so then she had earlier when her usual morning hoarde had swarmed, and Kuno seemed slightly stunned at first.

Kuno turned to face the girl. "Akane Tendo, Lest to light winning make the prize light, I accept." He brought his bokkan up into a basic swordsman's stance. "If you defeat me, then I shall allow you to date me. However, I am prepared to lose." He flashed a shining smile as he circled the martial artist.

"You say it like I want to date you, as if." She lowered her body slightly and launched into her first attack, which Kuno easily avoided.

Kuno took one step back and lowered his wooden sword, then began a quick upward slash at Akane, who used his shoulders to vault over and behind him. Kuno turned upon her, and brought forth a mighty backslash, which again Akane avoided by flipping over his body. She retook her fighting stance as Kuno came with a downward slash which she caught in her hand and fell backwards to the ground, placing a foot into Kuno's stomach and sending him into the air, or rather, the tree in which Ranma had finally regained her balance.

"There we go, now to change back into a..."

Kuno's head embedded itself into the kettle, where he caught a glimpse of the treeborne redhead. Ranma gave a nervous laugh as she stared back into Kuno's eyes. To say she was nervous would be an understatement.

"We meet again" Kuno spoke nearly emotionlessly. as Ranma continued her nervous laugh. "Tell me, have you seen a strange man with a pigtail?" Ranma shook her head to Kuno's question. "Cowards die so many times before their deaths, no doubt he feared my prowess. That man is no man, he is not a man!"

Not knowing why, Kuno plummeted to the ground as Ranma released the kettle. If only Kuno weren't so dense, if only he'd had enough brain to realize that he had been speaking to Ranma, perhaps that nerve wouldn't have been struck. Then again, what kind of story would that be, that possibility would lead to a far too predictable conclusion. Instead, Kuno remained quite ignorant of the nerve he struck as the kettle hit the ground, then collapsed under Kuno's head as he did the same.

"I'm not gonna hang around and listen to this." Ranma lifted Chise from the tree branch next to her and landed on the ground as Kuno stood. "I'll take you on anytime Kuno."

"As you wish my fiery one, beauty itself doth persuade." He reached for Akane, grabbing back his Bokken which she had picked up. He swung downward at Ranma. "If you defeat me, then I shall allow you to date me."

Ranma appeared on the back edge of Kuno's bokkan and kicked him one across his left cheek. "Who asked for a date anyways?" Kuno stood there unphased for a single second before the kick took affect and Ranma flew up into the air. While Ranma showed off some, throwing two perfect kicks in mid-air, Kuno flew a few hundred yards, landing through a wall, and face first in the lap of one Nabiki Tendo, before sliding to the floor and landing in a small forming pool of blood from what was likely a broken nose, or came from perverse thoughts at his point of landing, either way, there was a small pool of blood forming beneath him.

Ranma kicked the bokkan up into her hands and over her shoulder. "Come on Akane, let's go home."

"But school isn't over yet"

"Chise-chan is scared, and I need some time to cool off" The two girls started off towards home on that note.

"Hey Ranma, I want to make a stop before we go home." Akane smiled as she walked in front of the doll carrying girl with a slight smile. "Besides, it'll give us a chance to find you some warm water so we can change you back."

Ranma said nothing for a moment, then looked at Akane, she then whispered something to the doll, waited a moment, then nodded. "Ok Akane, Chise-chan likes the idea too."

Akane was only mildly creeped out by the young boy-turned-girl talking to a doll as if it were a living being. She didn't say much as she quietly lead Ranma to a nearby clinic. She quietly opened the door and stepped inside, Ranma soon followed behind her. "Hello? Dr. Tofu?" There was no answer, but that wasn't uncommon for the fine Doctor in question, perhaps he was busy with a patient. "Hey Ranma, wait here, I'll go get some warm water for you."

"O-ok Akane, thanks." As the raven haired girl went into another room, Ranma sighed and looked at Chise. "What have we gotten into?"

It was almost at that moment that Ranma felt a very boney hand on her shoulder, all her martial arts training, all her conditioning, by all rights, she should have turned and knocked the head off the offending skeleton, however, the hormones going through the rather nubile and feminine body which he presently occupied, coupled with the surprise, the fact she saw the bones as her head turned, and not needinganother fight, Ranma jumped and clung to the open door bbehind her in terror.

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to scare you. I'm Dr. Tofu." A young man, no older then 25, smiled at the terrified female Ranma, then brought the skeletal hand which he was controlling to scratch the boney head of the same skeleton. "And this is Betty, my skeleton."

Akane returned to the entry hall with a teakettle just in time to see Ranma, and more importantly Dr. Tofu. "D-Dr. Tofu!" The smile that appeared on Akane's face was very telling as Ranma calmed down enough and looked between doctor and patient, then smirked knowingly. It was obvious that Akane had a schoolgirl crush on the good doctor, if not for the smile, then by the simple fact her normally pasty pink skins had deepened red about 15 shades.

Ranma giggled a bit as he walked behind Akane, who was still blushing from her encounter at the clinic. "Looks like you're kinda sweet on the good doctor there, eh Akane?"

Had anyone else called her on it, she'd have denied it, but Ranma, who'd already made her rethink many things today, he was obviously perceptive, and knew better. "D-Dr. Tofu? Me like him?" She sighed a bit and stopped, lagging a bit behind Ranma. "I, yeah, I guess you're right, but nothing will come of it, Dr. Tofu's in love with your fiance."

"He's in love with Kasumi? How can you tell?"

"You just can, ok? When he's around her, he's a completely different person." Akane sighed, obviously trying to hold back tears, but with little luck.

"Akane..." Ranma placed Chise-chan in his pocket and stepped towards her, wrapping his arms gently about her in a tender embrace, then resting her head against his shoulder.

Akane blushed deeply, at that moment all the tears that had been forming vanished, she was completely taken by Ranma's warm embrace, and all seemed right with the world. "R-Ranma..." her voice quaked as she relaxed in his arms. In yet another moment of purest sensitivity, Ranma had made her completely forget her troubles, as well as quelling a deep hatred of boys. She could feel it, Ranma was unlike any man she'd ever met, and she couldn't help but find him stealing her heart.

"Let's go home Akane. By the way, that Dr. Tofu, he pratices Martial Arts, doesn't he?" Ranma had let go of Akane, and turned back towards the Tendo Dojo.

"Y-yeah, how did you know?" Suddenly Dr. Tofu was back on her mind, she wasn't as depressed as before, but her heavenly assent had ended. She followed Ranma quietly for a moment, giving him time to answer.

"When he snuck up on me in the clinic, I couldn't sense him at all. He's pretty good, probably even better then me." Ranma smiled and looked back at Akane. "Someday I think I'd like to spar with him, see how I match up. In the meantime, want me to help you get him to notice you?"

Akane blushed as they passed under the archway into the dojo. "N-no, I couldn't do that to Kasumi, deep down, I really think she feels the same about him."

"About who Akane?"

The sudden sweetness that was Kasumi's voice had Akane frozen like a deer in headlights, She had to think quick, and she had to respond, or else she'd have to confess to her sister, something she really wasn't in the mood to do.

"We were talking about how your father was always looking out for your best interests Kasumi." Ranma smiled softly at his fiance, then headed into the Tendo household quietly.

"Oh, so that's what you two were talking about. Well, go clean up you too, dinner will be ready in a little while." Kasumi followed after Ranma into the house.

Akane remained outside in a daze for a moment, once again Ranma to the rescue. What was this, some fairytail where she was the Princess in distress? That boy, he was her knight, she could no longer deny it as she hurrried into the house, and straight to her room with red across her face in shades rarely ever seen on humans.


	4. Love and the Single Idiot

Chapter 4:

Love and the Single Idiot

"From what I understand Akane really looked after you in school today boy" The elder Saotome looks at his son from his combination headstand lotus position.

"She was paying me back for earlier pops, you know, never owe anyone? Not that that's something you ever practiced." Ranma was in the same position as his father, but spoke a bit more casually. Chise-chan for some odd reason had been settled into the same position by Ranma prior to their exercise.

Genma laughed nervously to himself, then rolled to his feet, pushed his son's legs together then flipped him to sit upon his knees. "Have you learned nothing my boy? You wound me Ranma, I've taught you better then that, you should know the difference between paying a debt and not abandoning family." He had turned from his son and tears, more then likely forced, were flowing from his eyes. "You wound me my boy, thinking so little of your old father." He took a deep breath, then turned towards the pigtailed boy. "Ranma, your father has fail... Grww grww grrrwwaraw..."

A bucket had stopped the elder Saotome mid-sentence, as Ranma stood across the dojo from him with a grin on his face and a doll in his arms. "Sorry." Ranma giggled to himself as his Pand for a father eventually calmed a bit and gave him a gaze of death. The panda then turned to leave the dojo, it's head hitting the frame of the door. Usually Genma would have shrugged it off, but in his state, and his haste, the force was enough to drop him, and put him out for the night.

Ranma stood outside Akane's door nervously looking at Chise-chan. "A-are you sure this is alright?" He smiled then nodded to the doll. "Yeah, I guess I should thank her again. Hey Aka..." He was cut off hearing some chatter in the room.

Inside the room, Nabiki was going through a small calesthenics routine, while Akane was doing her homework. "And he beat Kuno twice. On top of that, well, uh..." Akane blushed a bit looking away from Nabiki and returning to her homework.

"I can't believe you sis, acting like you have a little schoolgirl crush on a boy, much less that perverted freak and his doll." Nabiki scowled slightly at her younger sister, the distaste she had for Ranma from the night before still in her mind. On top of that, she was certain that it had been Ranma who so graciously landed Kuno in her lap earlier that day, afterall, who else on campus could do that to Kuno. "And he has no self control, We had to rush Kuno to the hospital for a few broken bones."

"Oh come on Nabiki, he's not that bad, he's actually kinda sweet." Akane failed to notice that she'd doodled his name a few times into her homework, staring off into space lost in thoughts of him.

Nabiki shook her head a bit, then sat up and stepped up behind Akane. "If you're so sweet on him, why not ask Kasumi if you can have him, you deserve that pervert if you think of him like that."

Ranma outside blushed then shook his head and looked at the doll. "Yeah, I think it's best we come back later Chise-chan." He rounded the corned and hopped down the stairs, noticing a bit too late that Kasumi had been coming up the stair. Kasumi who had been carrying a bucket of water screamed slightly seeing her fiance barreling down the steps towards her. Ranma being the nimble martial artist he was, managed to land a hand on the rail enough to slow him, then embraced Kasumi as he landed to regain his balance, and to prevent her from losing hers and falling. A moment passed and Ranma slowly took one step back. That was when both he and Kasumi noticed the bucket, just in time to see it land water first on a rather angry looking Panda.

"Mr. Saotome, did you spend the night like that?" Kasumi was walking towards the kitchen to prepare the mornings breakfast as she passed the panda reading a newspaper.

The Panda nodded as his good friend Soun poked his head out of the dining room to reply. "Not worth the trouble of changing back he said."

"Hurry up Akane, or we're going to be late!" Ranma ran past the panda carrying his doll, then skidded to a stop and looked at his father. "Are you still mad about that?"

The Panda glared at him and growled.

"Don't forget your lunch Ranma-kun" Kasumi poked her head out and handed Ranma a small bento box.

Akane ran past Ranma and grabbed his wrist, dragging him out of the house. "And you're the one complaining about being late."

"We'll talk later Kasumi" Ranma said as Akane managed to get him out into the street, and lead him towards the school at a slightly more casual pace then they had left the Tendo household.

"So, uhm Ranma, about those guys..."

Ranma had hopped onto the fence to Akane's left, cradling Chise-chan close, and half listening at first. "Yeah yeah, I know, don't worry Akane, I won't let them touch you."

She blushed, she had expected some line like that from him, but all the same it affected her. "Th-that's what I wanted to talk to you about, I can handle them myself Ranma, but thanks for your concern. I dealt with them before you came, and I can take care of myself."

"If it's all the same to you Akane, I just don't like the idea of boys trying to hit a girl. I know you can handle them Akane, you're the heir to your father's school, but that doesn't make it right." Ranma hopped down next to Akane with a smile, then placed Chise-chan in her bag. "Besides, I'll hold you personally responsible if anything happens to Chise-chan.

Akane blinked then saw the schoolyard, and her crowd of admirers. She took a deep breath and readied herself for her normal fight, then blushed as Ranma patted her shoulder.

The crowd that gathered in unison blinked as they saw Ranma coming down the path next to Akane. One of the young boys near the front took a half step back before turning to the crowd behind him and shouting. "Run! The Destroyer of Dreams is with her." The crowd had vanished as quickly as the day before, though this time without a single casualty. A couple of the boys from the previous day limped, or hobbled away on crutches as quickly as they could.

Ranma and Akane blinked seeing the reaction of the male population, then Ranma noticed something else. "Ya know Akane, I don't think I saw that Kuno fellow with them, I wonder where he could be."

"Who knows, who cares?" Akane sighed as she leaned against Ranma and wrapped her arms around his with a smile.

On the roof stood a battered and broken young samurai, his neck in a brace, bandages under his top showing from the obvious rib injuries, and his left arm in a sling. He kept a watch on the path with the intent of spotting one person, Akane far back out of his mind for the first time since he had met her. "Whither the Pig-tailed Tree-born Kettle Girl?" He looked down as the final bell sounded calling for class, and headed back into the school.

"Oh Ranma, I've got something for you." The Ice-queen cooed at her elder sister's fiance as she offered him a note. Sensing some form of impending doom, Ranma gulped a bit.

"Th-that's okay Nabiki, I..."

"It's from Kuno, to the Pig-tailed girl. He has no idea you're the same person." Nabiki smiled slightly as she turned away.

"Hey Ranma, that looks like a challenge letter." Chimed in Akane as she looked over the young martial artist's shoulder.

"On Sunday, at 5:16pm, meet me at the Second Field of Furinken High School, come alone." Ranma blinked a bit as he read the note aloud.

"Kuno-baby hates to lose Ranma, I wouldn't go if I were you." Nabiki shrugged and giggled to herself as she walked off, she knew full well of Kuno's intentions, and it was still more then the pervert would deserve.

Sunday had arrived, and Ranma stood under a tree with Chise-chan draped over her left arm, sighing as she waited to answer the challenge. "He's late Chise-chan, and he's the one who wanted this fight... I'll never understand..."

She was cut off as Kuno stepped out of the coming sunset and loked at his target. "It is precisely 5:16pm, the moment when the sunset is at it's most beautiful. For it is the rising young star of the Kendo world who shines before you. They call me Blue Thunder of Furinken High. It is I, Tatewaki Kuno who hath beckoned thee to me."

"Hey, wait a sec, where is that stick you're always waving around, pretty confident of ya to come without it huh?"

"Confident enough, to give you this." A large object flew from Kuno's right hand, and past the red-headed Ranma. She had managed to catch it, then blinked a bit nervously as she pulled it to her front to look at it. Her suspicions were correct as she blinked again to see a dozen beautiful red roses in her hand. "Pig-tailed Girl, I love you." Kuno spoke as he turned his back to vanish off into the sunset through which he had arrived.

Ranma blinked again as crimson scarred her cheeks. A man to the end, her sensitive side was moved to such actions by Kuno's beyond romantic confession, however, her knees and her stomach betrayed her cheeks as they each weakened, and she collapsed upon her knees. Chise-chan as well was dropped to the ground as Ranma lost all control of her muscles. "I think I'm going to be sick."


	5. The Rival, The Doll, and The Fiance

Chapter 5:

The Rival, The Doll, and The Fiance

Two days had passed since Kuno's declaration of love at sunset, and since returning home, Ranma had yet to leave hte bathroom. The entire household had become slightly worried by now, as the martial artist had locked himself in, hadn't answered anyone, and kept shouting out 'unclean' in a feminine voice every hour on the hour. Akane had finally had enough and went up to check on Ranma one more time, this time through the window. "Are you okay in here Ranma?" The Raven haired girl looked at the nude red-head with concern.

"S-s-so unclean. So very unclean." Her skin was red, almost rubbed completely raw as she continued to scrub her body harshly. The doll sat quietly against the wall near the red-head as if to watch as she continued to try and scrape the filth from her body.

Akane blinked watching this display and moved closer to Ranma, unlocking the door leading out of the bathroom in the process. "What on Earth did Kuno do to you? I mean, honestly Ranma, there isn't anything he could do that could be this bad, you're acting like such a girl."

Ranma blinked and looked at Akane, her focus for the first time in two days changing away from the unclean feeling she'd had. "K-K-Kuno confessed to me." Ranma shuddered as she uttered those words, then winced from the pain of her overly raw skin. "I, I almost liked it too."

Akane blinked a bit more as she stared at Ranma, then grabbed a washcloth herself. "Here, let me help, that'd be enough to traumatize any woman, and especially a man."

* * *

"Kasumi?" Akane looked at her older sister with a slightly bittersweet smile. She loved her sister dearly, but she couldn't stand this much longer. She had to get it off her chest before it drove her to hate her eldest sister. "I, I think I like Ranma."

Kasumi looked over her shoulder as she continued to work on preparing breakfast. "Is that so Akane? Have you told him?"

Akane shook her head and blushed slightly as she took a seat at the breakfast table before anyone else made their way to the dining room. She was still able to see Kasumi, and no one else would be there for a few more minutes. "You're not mad? I mean, he is your fiance."

"I'm sure father would understand. I only agreed to marry him for father's sake, if you'd like, we can change the arrangement." Kasumi smiled as she turned back to the food she was preparing for that morning. "I think you and Ranma make a better match anyways."

Akane blinked at that comment, she could have sworn that her sister just dumped Ranma onto her, but that didn't seem completely likely. Kasumi was a girl of duty and honor, if she agreed to marry Ranma for father's sake, it wouldn't be as simple a matter as just telling her to be with Ranma. Akane then winced as she heard the chopping board take a deep cut from a knife. "Oh my, I think I cut that celery too hard." There was one thing the Tendo household had been aware of for many years. Kasumi was perhaps the most dangerous member of the family, though not due to combat skills. Nabiki had once earned Kasumi's wrath for stealing father's praises. That month of hell for Nabiki involved numerous failed poisonings by Kasumi, who didn't quite mean to attempt sisterly homicide, but rather reacted on instinct. Akane shuddered, she realized she probably shouldn't have spoken.

* * *

"Thanks for snapping me out of that earlier Akane." Ranma smiled at her as they walked towards the school. "But are you ok? You don't look too well, and you didn't touch your breakfast this morning."

Akane nodded a bit as she sighed and leaned against Ranma's side. "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just starting a new diet today."

"Why do you need to diet Akane? You figure is perfect already." Ranma giggled slight and poked at her ribs playfully.

Akane wasn't amused and gave Ranma a rather unfamiliar glare of death. "Trust me Ranma, I need to diet." She sighed slighty as they reached the gates of Furinken.

"Ranma?" a young man, black hair, familiar yellow shirt, polka-dotted black and yellow bandana, and a fang looked up from his walking stick as he heard that name. "I-it is Ranma." He blinked a bit in disbelief. "I, I finally made it, I finally found you, Prepare to die Ranma Saotome!" The fanged boy leapt into action as he slammed his umbrealla into the ground upon landing in front of Ranma and Akane, creating a small crater in the ground from his impact.

Ranma blinked looking at the boy he hadn't seen in several years. "R-R-Ryouga?"

Akane blinked looking at the new arrival, then at Ranma. "A friend of yours?"

Ranma shook his head a bit as Ryouga growled slightly. "You ran away from a man to man fight Ranma, you ran away from our promise! But no longer, today is the day I beat you."

Ranma shuddered again "C-can't we talk this out Ryouga, I mean, I was going to fight you, honest, but I waited for you for 3 days."

Ryouga glared at Ranma and through a hard punch at his face. "But when I arrived on the fourth day, you'd chickened out and ran, just like the little pansie we all knew you were." One would have to understand that Ranma, in his younger years, had attended an Junior High with Ryouga Hibiki. This was at a time in Ranma's life just prior to his truely accepting of the martial arts. As such, the other boys, often led by Ryouga, constantly picked on and tormented the poor doll loving boy. Ranma had one day finally grown tired of being bullied and redoubled his efforts, much to his father's chagrin, to learn the art and master it. Finally the day came when he had challeneged Ryouga to a fight, though only because Ryouga had agreed to stop the bullying only if Ranma could beat him. "But that all changes now Ranma. I will kill you today for all the hell I have endured in finding you!"

Ranma had barely managed to dodge Ryouga's punch as he grabbed Akane's shoulders and spun, almost dancing with her to protect her from the fanged boy, who left at him and spiked the ground with his umbrella again. "Why won't you leave me alone, Chise and I just want to be left alone Ryouga!" Ranma lifted Akane, tossing her up into the air and flipped backwards before catching her and setting her down gently in an attempt to avoid Ryouga's attack again.

"This isn't about your stupid dolly Ranma, no, this is for all the hell I've been through because you ran away from our fight!" Akane had taken a few steps away from Ranma as Ryouga charged at him again. This time, Ranma could react, his movement so fast not even Akane's trained eyes could keep up as his left leg came up and connected with Ryouga's stomach.

Ryouga dropped to a knee and slid back a few feet at the kick, then stood again and charged at Ranma one more time. Akane watched in amazement. "Wow, he's good, he took Ranma's kick that broke Kuno so easily."

"Come on Ryouga, just leave me alone!" Ranma lowered his stance and refocused himself as Ryouga charged him again, this time his attack hit it's mark full on, catching Ryouga across the cheek and sending him flying through the wall of the school's courtyard. Ranma blinked as he saw Ryouga fly off, then chased after him. "Oh man, I hope he's not too hurt, he's gonna be pissed if he is."

Akane followed after Ranma. "Hey, wait up!"

When they reached the point where the skidmark in the concrete had stopped, they found a small black piglet upside down, floating in a fountain. Akane cooed at the poor little thing which she determined looked hurt, and lifted it from the water. Ranma blinked as he looked around a bit "Hey, where'd Ryouga go? And he calls me the coward for running away?" Ranma breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled Chise from his pocket and smiled at the doll. "It looks like we got rid of him for a while."


	6. The Piglet and The Cat

Chapter 6:

The Piglet and the Cat

"Ma'am, I wouldn' advise you buy those." An elderly Chinese man looked at the object his customer wished to purchase. "These very cursed, ancient legend say woman what owns this suffer great tragedy."

The young woman in question grinned a bit as she slapped down twelve thousand yen. "Oh, these aren't for me, these are a gift for Ranma." She smirked coldly as she placed the object into a back and rushed herself from the occult shop and into the night.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Morning came quickly in the Tendo household, but it was almost too quiet, especially for that particular household. In the dojo, Akane and Ranma, under the watchful eye of a foot tall Victorian dolly, were caring for an injured black piglet. The poor creature had been unconscious since they found it floating upright in a small fountain the afternoon before, but Ryouga was still nowhere to be found, and that itself had Ranma concerned.

Eventually, the sunlight would peek in through the windows, shining over the little black piglet, who finally began to stir slightly. This brought Akane and Ranma to life as they watched the bandaged creature with excitement. It slowly opened it's eyes, lifted it's head up, and the first sight it caught, Ranma's face. The pig squeeled violently and leapt towards Ranma, falling greatly short and barely really moving at all. Ranma jumped slightly and fell backwards in surprise. "D-did you see that Akane? That thing tried to attack me."

The doll that had been watching fell over from a slight gust of wind as Akane looked over the piglet and patted it's head. "You shouldn't be moving little fellow, you were pretty badly wounded when we found you." She smiled at the pig and slowly picked it up and held it to her chest. "You should thank Ranma though, he's the one who stayed here with you and cared for you all night."

The pig looked at the girl who was holding her, then blinked a bit and glared at Ranma, almost growling to show some sort of distate for the pigtailed martial artist. Ranma looked at the pig giving him a death glare and rand to pick up the doll and hide behind it. "Keep that pig away from me Akane, he's trying to eat me!"

Akane shook her head as she looked back down at the pig, then wandered over to Ranma and handed him the wounded creature. "Oh come on, he's probably just trying to show his appreciation for saving him. You should probably give him a bath though, you haven't taken one since last night. Who knows, the little guy might even warm up to you."

Ranma sighed as the pig was handed to him, and he shifted the doll to one hand to support the piglet with the other. "Oh, alright Akane. I'll do it." He looked down at the pig, who was still giving him a death glare. Ranma was showing his obvious distrust of the pig as he carried both it and the dolly from the dojo into the main house. Eventually both the pigtailed boy and the piglet would reach the bathroom. After filling the bath water, Ranma dunked the pig.

He was quite surprised when Ryouga shot up out of the water glaring at him, fuming, and about ready to explode. "Make your time Ranma, you don't have much longer to live."

Ranma shot back, stumbling as he fell away from the bath and hit the door in shock and mild fear, "R-Ryouga, wh-where did you come from?"

"This is all your fault Ranma, because of you, I've seen true hell. I must thank you though, cleaning my wounds after you caused them the way you did, you truely are a fool." Ryouga was still bruised and scraped up over a good portion of his body as he stood from the bath water and popped his knuckles, then dove for Ranma.

The only course of action Ranma had, as the fanged boy tackled into him, was to grab for the nearest object, which happened to be the flow control for the cold water of a shower head. The result of this mess left a rather wet doll on the floor next to a redheaded girl cowering away from a pig.

Ranma had managed to calm the situation, and a few minutes later, he sat quietly in the warm bath water, across from Ryouga who still had the hatred of hell burning in his eyes. "So, you followed me to Juusenkyou?"

"After you ran from our fight, I vowed to follow you to the ends of the Earth, it's because of you I suffer that hell as a pig. I'd finally reached Juusenkyou, and as I was about to search for you, a strange girl, chased by an angry panda carrying a doll, ran into me, knocking me off a ledge and into that accursed spring." Ryouga grumbled glaring again at Ranma, and popping his knuckles one more time. "What happened next was almost too horrible for words."

"But, it was a strange girl and a panda with a doll Ryouga, you can't possibly..." Genma always had the most horridly precise timing when it came to ruining his son's life, this was such a case as he opened the door, causing Chise-chan to fall over, and Ryouga's rage to reach a burning conclusion.

Ryouga stood from the bath, looked at the panda, the doll, then to Ranma, recalling the redhead he had become. "That girl... It all makes perfect sense to me now. That girl was you Ranma. It was all your fault." The bath exploded as a rather frightened, naked martial artist shot out the window into the backyard. Chasing was Ryouga. Had it not been for Nabiki, helping her older sister with the yard work, in this case watering the yard as she noticed the shadows falling towards her from above, and turning her hose upon them, Ryouga might have for once succeeded in defeating Ranma. As it was, a naked redhead landed crotch to face on Nabiki, with a little black piglet landing on her stomach.

Nabiki would have been more upset had she not already started a plan to get rid of Ranma for good. As it was, the pigtailed boy escaped the situation with only two black eyes, a therapy bill, and a 2 day restraining order.

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Akane had avoided yet another home-cooked meal by offering to clean Ranma's room. She had dodged another bullet, and it'd probably be best to keep doing so for at least another week. She'd been working on the room no more then ten minutes when she came across a shopping bag that was almost hidden, and had some kind of a gift card attached. "What's this?" Akane took the card and looked at it closely. "To Ranma, from Nabiki?" She looked at the card a minute longer then reached into the bag pulling out a small gift box. "I thought she hated Ranma." She opened the box and stared at the gift in total disbelief as a pair of panties with a cat's face print stared back at her. "On second though, she does hate him, even with his curse, he's still a man, there's no way he'd wear these." She giggled for a moment then hid the panties and finished cleaning the room.

It wasn't until several hours later, after her nightly bath that the entire house was brought to life by Akane's scream. "Will you keep it down, I'm trying to explain this too you."

Akane ripped at the panties trying to tear them off of her. "What the heck are you?"

The cat face on the panties looked up slightly and grinned. "I am the Fabled Panties of Neko Tentei. With my power, no man will be able to resist you."

Her scream echoed through the house again as Nabiki was the first to reach the bathroom. "Oh my god, Those were supposed to go on Ranma"

"Hi!" The cat grinned looking at Nabiki. "So you're the one who brought me hear. Thanks, I was getting so bored sleeping like that."

"How do I get these stupid things off Nabiki?" Akane glared at her sister, fighting an urge to kill her for the curse she'd been afflicted with.

"I don't know." Nabiki was horrified, she'd have never intentionally done anything like this to her sister.

"You know, you just need the guy you like to take me off." The cat faced panties chuckled, as Akane just fell to her knees in shock.


	7. The Furinken Battle Royale

Chapter 7:

The Furinken Battle Royale

Ranma had come running to the bathroom upon hearing Akane's scream. He'd left his doll behind in his room, in his rush to save the poor girl. He slammed open the door to the bathroom without even thinking. "What happened Akane?" He blinked a bit as he stood there, staring at Akane, wearing only a pair of panties, with a face of a black cat on them. His body went through mixed reactions seeing this sight, one was of fear, due to events not yet explained, one was excitement from seeing a young, attractive girl so nude, and the last, which was winning out, of pure and total lust. "Oh my Akane, I never realized..."

It didn't take much longer before Akane's trademark mallet had slammed the back of Ranma's head, driving him through the floor, and landing him on the kitchen table on the floor below. She'd have held back a lot more if she hadn't been completely embarassed by Ranma of all people seeing her in such a state. Nabiki watching couldn't help but chuckle as she looked through the hole at the unconscious boy below. "You really must show me where and how you hide those things dear sister."

The rest of the night had been uneventful, and as Ranma awoke, still on the kitchen table, he felt the warm grip of a hand on his, and a doll resting on his chest. He grabbed his head as he sat up and looked to his hand as he wrapped his other arm around the doll. He couldn't help but smile seeing Kasumi resting her hed on the table next to him. He didn't recall much about the night before, after he heard Akane's scream, but he had determined that Kasumi was watching over him all night.

Kasumi soon began to stir herself and as she sat up, she blushed looking at Ranma. "Oh dear, I must have dozed off." She looked around the room then saw the clock on the wall. "Oh my, I have to get started on breakfast." She had hurridly rushed into the kitchen before Ranma could even open his mouth to say thanks.

* * *

Genma stared down his son in the back yard, the morning routine of training was the most consistant thing in Ranma's life as the older Saotome charged the young martial artist. "Today's the day Ranma my boy, I will beat you and take that doll away."

"Bring it pops." Ranma was quick, dodging a barage of attacks from his father. He finally saw an opening and ducked to the ground, planting his hands and spiraling his body upwards as he kicked at his father's chin. The elder Saotome had already commited to the attack and could not defend. A moment later there was a splash in the koi pond, from which a rather miffed panda poked it's head from.

"Oh dear, looks like Mr. Saotome will be needing a special meal again this morning." Kasumi had been watching the training as she set out breakfast. She smiled as she headed back into the kitchen to prepare a plate of bamboo for Genma as the rest of the family finally made it's way into the dining room.

Akane grumbled, she didn't get much sleep that night, the panties rambling keeping her up a good portion of the night, though, they did seem to finally quiet down a bit. She'd discovered that so far, only she and her sister seemed capable of hearing them, she would count that a blessing. "So, that's the guy is it?" The panties smiled slightly as a slight gust of wind allowed them to see Ranma. Akane blinked and looked around, to be certain no one had heard the panties.

"Shut up already, I have enough problems without you!" Akane jumped directly to shouting, right as Ranma had appeared in front of her.

Ranma blinked, sniffled slightly, then ran out of the dining room, he wasn't about to let anyone see him cry, not today. He had no idea why Akane seemed so angry with him, but he wasn't about to stick around and find out. Akane blinked as she watched Ranma run off. Timing was not her friend as she sat down at the dining room table, forgetting that she'd earned Kasumi's subtle wrath a few days earlier.

* * *

Kasumi had worked some of her magic after breakfast, convincing Ranma to walk her younger sister to school as he always had. She always knew about the fight Akane had to endure every morning before school, and she was well informed that the fighting had stopped since Ranma showed up. Ranma had reluctantly agreed and sighed as he carried Chise walking a few yards behind Akane.

"Honestly Ranma, I said I was sorry, I wasn't even talking to you." Akane grumbled slightly looking back at the pigtaile martial artist. The only thing irritating her was the fact that she was stuck wearing those cursed Cat print panties.

"You know, with my power, it would be so easy to get me off, especially with him around. " The cat grinned a bit as Akane felt a sudden draft under her uniform.

"I said shut up!" Akane shouted just a few hundred yards away from the school grounds.

Ranma, who had been about to open his mouth to speak blinked, sighed then looked at the doll in his hands. Akane was pissed at him for something, and she wouldn't admit to it, or so he though. He was still completely oblivious to her problem.

As Akane stepped through the gates to the schoolyard, she again heard the cat's voice. "Oh, this place is very promising." Her panties, which were now more of a thong, began to glow slightly, as a huge gust of wind blew her skirt up, showing the cat off to all the boys that had still gathered to see if Ranma was walking Akane to school again. The magic of the panties began to take effect as each and everyone of the boys in the courtyard were fully overwhelmed with lust. Akane blinked a bit as she saw the entire schoolyard charging at her.

Behind, Ranma had also been affected, also in a lust imbued charge. Nabiki had done some research the night before, and sighed as she watched Ranma outside the gate. As much as she hated him, she could only rely on him for this. She'd had a bucket ready, and just as Ranma was passing her, she soaked him, igniting his curse, and breaking the panties spell on him.

"What in the heck?" Ranma skidded to a stop looking at her body then to Nabiki. "What are you thinking Nabiki, I can't go to school like this!"

Nabiki pointed at Akane, who was now in the middle of a fight for her life with the entire male population. "That was supposed to be you, but my darling sister ruined my plans. Those panties she's wearing are cursed, to incite extreme lust in members of the opposite sex."

Ranma blinked and glared at Nabiki. "What the hell were you thinking? Like I'd be caught dead wearing anything like that."

Nabiki pointed at the doll. "Who knows, you play with dollies."

"Leave Chise-chan out of this, besides, she doesn't like you." Ranma glared at Nabiki, then looked back at Akane and planted herself to leap to Akane's rescue.

Nabiki grabbed Ranma's arm, stopping her before she could move. "I have a plan, if you'll listen, besides, Akane should be fine for now." Before Ranma could agree, Nabiki had dragged her off to the gymnasium. "You wait here."

* * *

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Nabiki stood in the middle of a boxing ring with a microphone as an audience made up solely of women watched in disbelief of what the Ice Queen had set up. "Welcome one and all to the first annual Furinken Battle Royale for the heart of Akane Tendo."

Ranma blinked in disbelief as well as she sat in one of the corners as Nabiki continues to spout off nonsense about this so called tournament. She couldn't believe Nabiki was so cruel as to sell out her own sister for a few thousand extra yen. By the looks of it however, every boy in the school, and even a few that weren't from Furinken, had entered the ring ready to kill for Akane's love. Akane was bound and gagged above the ring, her panties in plain sight, using their power to even further entice the men below. "What the hell are you thinking Nabiki, she's your sister!" Ranma pointed up at Akane and glared at the Ice Queen.

"Buisiness is buisiness Ranma. If you're so concerned about her, then win, that's about all you can do." She chuckled slightly as she put the mic back to her lips. "So, without further ado, let the Battle Royale begin."

It wasn't long before the men in the ring began attacking each other, in rules where only the last four standing could participate in the final three matches to win the prize of Akane Tendo. This portion of the tournament would go by quickly as Ranma and Kuno both eliminated many of the other competitors. After much fighting, some bloodshed, and a few cheers from the audience, only four fighters remained standing.

Nabiki had called for the Battle Royale portion to end, then introduced the four finalist. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I give to you our final four, Ranma Saotome" The audience blinked, as did most of the rest of the fighters who stared at the young, redheaded pigtailed girl Nabiki was pointing at. Most were quite confused that a woman was fighting for Akane, and that she shared the name of the favorite to win the tournament. "Continuing on, Tatewaki Kuno, Ryouga Hibiki," Ranma blinked, then glared at his rival, who had somehow made it into the tournament on a wrong turn. "And The Mysterious S"

The crowd, now made up of the girls, and all the males who had lost cheered as Akane continued to dangle above the ring. Nabiki drew up lots for the final four pairings, which shaped up the last three matches as Ranma vs. Kuno, and 'S' vs Ryouga.


	8. The Furinken Battle Royale Pt 2

Chapter 8:

The Furinken Battle Royale Pt. 2

Akane dangled from the rope nearly thirty feet above the ring used for the competition. Her panties continued to rain their lustful powers upon the audience. The men, all of whom were fairly badly injured from the battle royale portion of the tournament, stared at her with lust, but didn't move from severe injuries. The girls continued to watch as the semifinals were about to begin, the redheaded Ranma facing off in one corner against Kuno in the other. Kuno was the first to speak. "To think, That you would enter this tournament for Akane's heart just so that you could face me for the honor of a date. Truely I am blessed, to win both your heart, and that of Akane Tendo on the same day."

Ranma glared at Kuno, clutching Chise-chan tightly before setting her on a ringpost and turning to possibly the only man on Earth she could ever dispise more then her own father. "Stay put Chise-chan, this won't take long."

Ranma leapt forward into battle, charging at Kuno with her incredible speed. She wasn't sure if it was Kuno's skills that had improved, or the magic of the cat-faced panties Akane was wearing, but Kuno had definately gotten better, blocking most of Ranma's attacks, and shrugging off the kick that did manage to land. After her offensive ended, Kuno retaliated with his bokkan, managing to connect a single strike that grazed Ranma's left shoulder. She leapt away after that hit to regroup and Kuno did the same. The crowd watched in awe.

Ranma was back in her corner and took a moment to look at Chise-chan. There was a sudden flair of power in the gymnasium, most of the crowd could feel it as for some reason or another, Ranma had been angered. The source of that anger, in the exchange, the force of Kuno's attacks had managed to crack one of the doll's arms. The doll, that to Ranma, was more prescious then life. She stood back up, turned her attention on Kuno as red energy flickerd around her.

Kuno charged again, intent on winning, and began a barage of bokkan stabs at the redhead, who dodged the first hundred or so with little effort, grabbing and stopping the blade with a thumb and index finger at one point. She glared at Kuno with intent to kill, crushed his wooden sword between the two fingers causing it to shatter in a small rain of splinters, then with what the audience say as a slight twitch, had kicked the kendoist at least ten times, sending him out of the ring, through the gym wall, and after bouncing off the pavement a few times, and traveling through a few more buildings via new holes in the walls, was conveniantly landed in a bed at the ICU ward of the local hospital.

As Ranma popped her knuckles after the brutal attack, she rushed to her corner, then cradled her doll lovingly. Nabiki, who was planning to call the match in a play by play fashion could only watch the fight in amazement. She lifted her mic to her lips and after a brief pause due to stun effect, announced the match over. "As it appears Kuno may no longer even be in the country, Match goes to Ranma Saotome." She quickly reminded herself that she perhaps shouldn't mess with the doll. She mumbled quietly to herself. "Thank you once again Kuno, I think I owe you for this." As much as she despised Ranma, she wasn't a fighter, and to get that reaction for damaging the doll, she would scratch that as a future plan. She then announced the next match. "Semifinals match number two, Ryouga Hibiki vs. The Mysterious 'S'. Will the fighters please enter the ring."

Ryouga, as lost as he ever was, had been heading for the exit when a girl in the audience pointed him to the ring. He glanced up, blushing slightly when he saw Akane, but the effect of the panties took hold as he smirked a bit and entered the ring. 'S' was there waiting, though rather then look at the opponent given to him, he seemed far more intent to stare at Ranma through the scarf that completely covered his face. Then again, 'S' was fairly gender neutral, the masculine terming that was offered throught the tournament, was based only on the fact that the prize was one Akane Tendo. It's wasn't long before 'S' squashed that view, removing some restrictive clothing that had been worn during the battle royale. What stood there was the form of a beautiful woman, wearing a tight blue and pink outfit that covered her entire body. Her face, except for her eyes was covered completely by the red scarf.

Ryouga glared at the girl, normally, he wouldn't be one to hit a woman, but the panties on poor Akane were driving him, controlling him to the point that his desire was all that mattered. He pulled off a bandanna, then another, and another, having worn far too many, at least for a normal person. He started to spin them in his hands, until there was a circle of yellow and black. 'S' had brought a metal Bo stick into the ring, and twisted it, seperating it into a three-sectioned staff, connected by chains. She charged Ryouga who threw his three bandannas at her and grabbed the umbrella from his back. 'S' deflected one of the bandanna's, however the other two connected with the chains on her staff, cutting them and leaving her with two, shorter metal sections.

Ryouga opened the umbrella to parry as both metal rods came at him, then closed it as he made an attempt to stab at his opponent. 'S' had been a step ahead of him, using the umbrella as a platform to launch herself into the air, landing on Ryouga's face and driving him into the ground. She then fell backwards, landing an elbow drop directly on his family jewels. Ryouga screamed in agonizing pain at that. 'S' rolled back to her feet as Ryouga writhed in pain on the ground, taking a moment to glare at Ranma. A knife slid from her sleeve into her hand and she quickly threw it at Ranma, who saw it and dodged, just as Ryouga got back to his feet, still clearly in pain. "This fight is between us, I'm your opponent."

'S' turned her attention back to Ryouga, then brought her hands together in front of her chest. Ryouga blinked at this move and moved closer to her cautiously, then made an attempt to stab at her again with his closed umbrella. 'S' brought her hands forward, placing them against the tip of the umbrella, which split in the middle as she stepped into it, and between the halves, connecting an elbow with Ryouga's cheek, followed by a left cross, a knee to the chest, and finally a double fisted hammer blow to the back of his head. As Ryouga rolled onto his back, 'S' had kicked one portion of her three-sectional staff up into her hand, and placed it against Ryouga's throat. "I give, I give, please don't kill me!" Ryouga whimpered slightly as 'S' dropped the rod and glared again at Ranma.

Nabiki had again watched the fight in awe with the rest of the audience. Each of the semi-final matces had ended rather quickly, but she was certain there had been a lot of action. "Th-that ends the semi-finals. Odd as it may be, we have two women competing for my sister's heart in the final round, Ranma Saotome vs. The Mysterious S."

Akane struggled in her ropes as she glared down at Nabiki, who's minions were already working the crowds for bets in the finals. Nabiki chuckled looking back up at her sister and mouthed in her direction. "Don't worry, I'll split the profits with you, as payment for this."

Ranma grumbeld a bit as she stood up and headed back to the ring. Already her opponent in the final round had tried to kill her, and that fighting style, she knew she'd seen it before. She sighed looking at the doll she held in her hands as 'S' entered the ring in the other corner. Ranma already knew that this fight would be difficult, as her opponent was willing and ready to kill. She placed the doll on the ground behind her and took a serious fighting stance as 'S' removed her scarf, allowing her lavender hair to fall against her cheeks. Ranma blinked a bit looking at her. "Sh-sh-shampoo?"

Ranma started to shake, jumped out of the ring and hid behind Nabiki. "K-keep her away from me, she's going to kill me."

Nabiki blinked a bit, looking at Ranma, then at the woman she had called Shampoo. She then pushed Ranma back towards the ring. "Either you fight her, and save my sister, or I find a way to make your life more hell then I already am."

Ranma blinked and shivered again as she was pushed back into the ring. Shampoo glared at her as she drew a sword from a sheath on her back. "Nihao Ranma. You I kill."


	9. Rage of an Amazon

Chapter 9:

Rage of an Amazon

Akane watched from above as she saw the redheaded pigtailed girl facing off against the lavender haired Amazon. She continued to squirm in her bindings in an attempt to get free, and her attempts at screaming were muffled by a gag. Below, the Amazon stared Ranma down and held her stance, waiting for the right moment to kill Ranma, who was reluctantly taking a fighting stance of her own. Nabiki, who watched from the sideline was a bit torn. On the one hand, she needed Ranma to help save Akane, as much as she would rather find another way. On the other, if Shampoo killed Ranma, the pervert with a doll fetish would be forever gone from her life. "Will you two start fighting already?" Nabiki shouted into the microphone as she glared at the two finalists.

Shampoo had waited enough and dove towards Ranma, who leapt over her to dodge as the sword split the ring in two from it's impact. Ranma dangled from the hanging Akane above the ring shivering a bit. Akane continued to squirm. Shampoo growled then looked up seeing Ranma dangling from the prize, and threw the sword, cutting the rope which held them aloft. The sword imbedded itself in the cieling as Ranma and Akane fell to the ground, Ranma wrapping his arms around the girl and landing with her safely. "Are you ok Akane?"

Akane had managed, with the rope having been cut, to wiggle her way free of the bindings and removed the gag. She popped her writs, then glared at Nabiki, briefly ignoring the Amazon. "Nabiki! What the hell were you thinking?" She then removed a mallet from wherever she kept them hidden and spun around as the Amazon again charge Ranma.

Ranma blinked, seeing that the mallet would hit Shampoo and dove in the path as fast as she could to spare Akane a similar fate. Shampoo on seeing Ranma's charge staggered her step in time to avoid the mallet, however Ranma wasn't as lucky as the strik connected, sending her flying out through the same hole Kuno had gone from. Akane blinked a bit seeing that she'd hit the wrong target, Shampoo had done the same, then looked at Akane. "You help Shampoo kill Ranma?"

Nabiki blinked a bit, then giggled as she lifted the mic to her lips again. "It seems that Ranma can no longer compete, winner of Akane's heart, The Mysterious 'S'."

Akane glared at her sister, Shampoo had already left to chase after Ranma. Akane grumbled as she cracked her knuckles and approached Nabiki with an angry aura. She'd have happily finished her sister off were it not for the fact that Nabiki supported most of the family. Rather then taking action, she calmed slightly, retrieved Ranma's doll and headed for home. The male audience would have followed her too, if they weren't so injured from the big battle royale.

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Ranma slowly slinked into the Tendo household, where he was greeted by the sight of Shampoo sitting at the dinner table. Ranma nearly jumped out of his skin as Kasumi smiled at him sweetly. "Oh, welcome home Ranma, you have a visitor. Mt. Saotome brought her."

Ranma glared at the Panda sitting at the opposite end of a table, holding up a sign in an attempt to proclaim his innocence. Ranma rarely got mad at anyone other then his father, and he was grabbing at the panda's neck when the Amazon moved to get a closer look at him. "Nihao..."

Ranma gulped nervously as he looked at the Amazon and smiled slightly. "Uh, h-hi."

Shampoo patted at Ranma's chest, then sighed in dismay. "You man..."

Ranma nodded a bit and slowly backed away from the girl nervously. "Y-yeah, s-sorry to disapoint."

Akane had come down to the kitchen, again, too absorbd in her issue with the cursed panties of the cat to remember to avoid Kasumi's wrath. She blinked a bit seeing Shampoo, and then looked at Ranma. "She seems a little less hateful of you now. Did you two come to an understanding Ranma?"

Shampoo turned her head to Akane, and grabbed her bonburi. "You know where Ranma is, you tell me." She thrusted the object towards the girl. Akane had stepped in her way of seeking her honor back earlier, whether it seemed helpful or not. That made her an obstacle, as Amazonian law required vengeance be earned alone, with no assistance.

Ranma, not thinking pushed his way in front of Akane and kicked the bonbori straight up. Shampoo blinked as her weapon left her head, and before she could react, it landed on the back of her neck with enough force to knock her out. both Ranma and the panda jumped seeing this. "Hurry pops, we gotta get out of her before she wakes up again, she's gonna kill me for sure."

The panda had already fled the kitchen and started to pack as the Tendo patriarch grabbed Ranma's shoulder and pushed him to the ground. "Not this time boy, I believe you have some explaining to do. Why are you and your father in such a rush to leave now, what reason does this girl have to kill you?"

"The Kiss of Death. Several months ago, soon after pops and I were cursed, we crossed into an Amazon village during a festival tournament. Pops, not thinking as he usually does, ate the banquet that was the first prize." Ranma sighed a bit and looked at the unconscious amazon. "She was the tournament champion, so rather then allow her to kill us, pops made me face her in a match for the food. I won, but that's where the trouble began. She woke up, kissed me on the cheek, and before I had time to blink, the Juusenkyou guide dragged me and pops from the village. She had given me the Kiss of Death, an Amazonian promise to seek me to the ends of the world, and kill me."

Nabiki stood silently in the corner of the room as Shampoo slowly started to wake up, and push to her feet. This was another opportunity to be rid of Ranma. She absently raised a foot, and pushed it against Ranma's back sending him rolling towards Shampoo. "So, be a man already and take your kiss of death Ranma."

Shampoo caught the rolling Ranma, leaned towards him, and placed her lips against his. After breaking off the kiss she smiled and leaned against his chest. "Wo Ai Ni."

Ranma blinked as the entire Tendo family fell to the floor in shock. Both Akane and Kasumi glared at Ranma with burning rage as Nabiki snapped her fingers. "Drats, foiled again."

Soun as well glared at Ranma, going into his angry demon father rage. "What is the meaning of this young man?"

Shampoo pulled a small guide book from her shirt and tossed it onto the dinner table before returning to the chest of Ranma, where she was attached as tightly as a leech for it's meal of blood.

Nabiki grabbed the book and looked at the title. "Amazonian laws for Dummies. These books are everywhere." She flipped through the pages quickly, finding the proper subject. "Ah, here it is. If a woman of Amazon tribe is defeated in combat, and that person is a woman, she is to give her the kiss of death and kill her. However, should that opponent be a man, she is to become his devoted wife in holy matrimony."

"M-m-married?" Akane, Ranma and Kasumi all shouted that line in unison.

"Ranma can't marry her." Kasumi blinked a bit looking at the Amazon.

Akane couldn't say it, she couldn't say anything, Ranma always had seemed out of her reach since she first started growing fond of him. And again, this was a case where he was beyond her reach.

"I, I'm already engaged." Ranma tried to push Shampoo away.

"Who is it, Who Ranma's fiance. Fiance is obstacle, obstacle for killing." Shampoo looked around to the three Tendo sisters, it had to be one of them.

Akane stepped forward, she had made up her mind, even if Kasumi was still subtly attempting sistercide, she was still her sister, and she would protect her. "I'm his fiance."

Ranma, Kasumi, and Nabiki blinked as Shampoo stood up away from Ranma, took Akane's cheeks in her hands, then kissed her cheek. "You I kill."

Ranma blinked and moved between Akane and Shampoo. "You can't just go around killing people, especially not Akane."

Akane blushed, Kasumi blinked, and Nabiki grumbled. Shampoo glared at Ranma a bit then looked at Akane. "Husband stay out of Shampoo fight. This matter of honor, honor very important to Amazon woman."

Akane took a fighting stance and glared at Shampoo. "I accept your challenge."

Shampoo glared back at Akane, kissed Ranma one more time, then turned from the dojo. "Challenge happen when Shampoo ready. Watch over husband till Shampoo take your life." And with that, Shampoo left the dojo, the entire Tendo family watched in disbelief.

Kasumi looked at her youngest sister and smiled. "Th-thank you Akane, I don't know what I'd have done if you han't stood up. I am no match for her."

Akane took a deep breath and looked at Kasumi, she'd really done it now, but hopefully she'd have at least subdued her sister's wrath. She'd need a good meal tonight if she was going to be ready for the Amazon.

"Hey, why do you people keep forgetting about me?" That cat panties grumbled a bit. "Fine, see if I care, I guess I won't help you then." Akane blinked looking down at her uniform where the panties were hiding under, then shook her head, she had more then enough problems for now, she did not need a pair of perverted panties adding to the problem.


	10. Much Ado About Shampoo

Chapter 10:

Much Ado About Shampoo

Night had come and gone several times, and tey each night was harder for one Akane Tendo. It had been several days since the Amazon known as Shampoo had made the promise of death, and as of yet, there had been no sign of any attack. It worried her, not knowing, waiting, she wanted the woman to make her move. Then there was the matter of the Cursed panties, she'd still been unable to remove them, and it was going on a week now. The panties had been relatively quiet, and inactive, though would from time to time cause trouble, mostly on her way to school where the battle royale continued and became worse each day.

Today had been no exception. As she arrived on campus, a wind blew her dress up revealing the panties, who grinned and inspired the ensuing battle. The sheer number of men had increased tenfold since she was cursed, and she had been getting less and less sleep due to Shampoo. If this kept up, she was certain someone would beat her within the next few days. She really had no time to think beyond that, as she side-stepped a charging football player, and kneed a basketball star. She had to duck as a hockey puck flew where her head had been, and took out a varsity soccer player. She then leapt over a small forming pile and spun, kicking the Hockey player and landing just under a left jab from a boxer. She soon took him out by breaking his jaw as she stood up. Then came Kuno, who had arrived just in time to get an unguarded shot at the back of Akane's head, or would have if Ranma hadn't shot past him, scooped Akane up, and narrowly avoided letting a much more dangerous barrage of daggers catch her from behind.

Akane was completely caught off guard as she heard the sound of metal hitting concrete where she had been standing, and saw a couple blades pinning Kuno to theground. She then looked at Ranma and blushed before she caught a glimmer of something shiney heading right for them. "Look out Ranma!"

Ranma let go of Akane and balled up as several shuriken flew around him, narrowly missing him, and hitting perfectly where Akane would have been. He landed, spun and turned looking for the source. He had seen just in time to catch another bladed barrage heading towards Akane and dove to push her out of the way. The wind gust that blew Akane's dress up was timed so perfectly it appeared to have been a scene shot in the movies, as Ranma's hand reached her backside, and as he pushed to knock her out of the way, his grip caught the Cursed Cat Panties. As he fell forward, the panties slipped off without so much as any effort, and Akane tripped within them falling flat on her face. The shiney objects littered the concrete behind Ranma, having once again missed thier mark.

Akane stood up, then blushed heavily as she felt the sudden draft under her skirt, then turned and glared at Ranma who was holding a pair of panties. It would dawn on her later that she was finally freed, but for the time being that thought wasn't on her mind "Ranma you pervert!!!" A mallet had somehow appeared in her hand and embedded itself and Ranma's head into the sidewalk.

The unseen assassin had fled however, having run out of ammo

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"Really, I mean it Ranma, I'm sorry." Akane sighed a bit as the pair walked home after class. She'd spent most of the day trying to apologize for the beating earlier, afterall, he'd saved her life and removed a curse.

"I said don't worry about it." He took a deep breath as the turned a corner, then froze. "Sh-Shampoo?!?"

"What about... Sh-Shampoo?" Akane had followed him around the corner then wished she hadn't. She was now standing slightly behind Ranma, facing off with an almost certain death, at least Ranma was there. She took a deep breath, then pushed past Ranma and got into Shampoo's face and mumbled slightly before she started yelling. "I'm sick of this Shampoo, when are you going to fight me. Look, I challenge you, right now, just, let's get this over with already."

Shampoo giggled and looked at Akane before turning her back and walking away. "Shampoo fight you, if husband stay here."

"I won't let you kill Akane Shampoo." Ranma tried to push past Akane who had raised her arm and glared at him.

"Fine, I accept. Stay here Ranma, I can take care of myself."

"Then follow Shampoo, and we fight." Shampoo started walking off, Akane following, and Ranma, against his will and better judgement, stayed behind.

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Ranma sighed, he really didn't like leaving Akane to herself, especially not with Shampoo as her opponent. It was highly unsettling, and Ranma was worried. He decided, staying still wasn't an option, if he did nothing, Akane would end up dead, and he couldn't bare that thought. As he made his decision, he heard Akane's scream off in the distance. "Dammit! I'm too late. Akane!" He took off towards the scream.

He arrived, too late to catch Shampoo, but the scene wasn't much different then he'd expected, just less blood then he had thought. Was Shampoo that good, could she kill without leaving a visible wound? No, Ranma was sure of it, He'd fought Shampoo, she was good, but not that powerful.

Ranma rushed to Akane's side, and caught her just as she came to, that was a relief. But she wondered, what had Shampoo done? She'd made the promise to hunt down and kill Akane, but she had left with Akane still alive. It was confusing, and again, Ranma didn't like it. "Are you okay Akane?"

The dark haired girl slowly sat up, looked at Ranma, then grabbed her head. "Yeah, I, I'm fine, just a little dizzy."

"I was so worried Akane, I thought Shampoo was going to kill you. What happened?"

"I..." Akane paused a bit as she grabbed her head again, something felt different, almost refreshing. That was odd, she didn't remember having washed her hair that morning, but for some reason, it felt as if she'd just come from the salon. "I don't know? I remember facing off against Shampoo, she was fast, really fast, after that, I remember nothing until you got here." She looked at Ranma for a moment, then blinked and winced in pain before grabbing her head again. "Wait, who are you?"

"Wait, what? I'm Ranma, you know, Kasumi's fiance?"

"Kasumi's getting married?"

"Ok Akane, this isn't funny." Ranma stood up and looked at the girl for a moment as she stood herself, then brushed off her uniform.

"Really, I don't remember you, I don't recall us having ever met before." She shook her head slightly, her head was still fuzzy, and it felt worse every time she looked at Ranma. She couldn't place it, but there was something there, something she couldn't explain.

"I live at your house, I'm engaged to your sister!"

"You are? I wasn't aware either of them had been dating."

Ranma sighed heavily, then grabbed Akane's hand and started dragging her towards the city. "Come on Akane, we're going to see Dr. Tofu, if anyone can help us he can."

"You know Dr. Tofu?" Akane blushed brightly, with her missing memories of Ranma, she'd have completely forgotten their talk several days earlier. Somehow, she felt it odd that she felt this strongly towards Tofu, afterall, she had recalled a few days earlier feeling relieved that she was over him. Somehow, it almost felt wrong that she felt a fancy towards him.

"Yeah, we had a talk with him a couple weeks ago. You introduced me to him. You really don't remember?" Ranma sighed and reached into his pocket. "Do you at least remember..." Ranma started to panic as he reached around in his pocket. Something was missing, something incredibly important, in fact, something more precious to him then his own life. Chise-chan wasn't there. Ranma started to shake slightly as terror crept over his face. Had he dropped her somewhere? Ranma closed his eyes and shook his head, Akane was more important right now, he'd have to retrace his steps later, or hold onto the hope that he had simply forgotten her at home. Actually, that seemed the most unlikely, he cherished the doll. Forget her? Ranma pushed that thought completely from his mind, that was impossible.

"Do I remember what?" Akane looked at him funny for a moment while they had paused. She saw him reach into a pocket as he dragged her towards Tofu's place, and then he suddenly stopped, paniced. "You're making no sense."

"Forget it Akane, We have to see Dr. Tofu." Ranma shuddered fearing what had happened to Chise, but continued to drag Akane towards the clinic.

Author's note:

Pardon the appearence of the double update if you have this story on Alerts. I, in my infinite ineptitude had origionally written this chapter with a huge, glaring continuity error. After going back and rereading a little, I found that a plot point I was about to introduce had already been introduced, so I rewrote a small portion of this chapter to compensate. Hopefully I caught it before too many of you did. Anyways, leave comments, I love seeing how all you wonderful people enjoy my work.


	11. Yet the Memory Remains

Chapter 11:

Yet the Memory Remains

"It's the Legendary Sai Feng Heng Gow Shiatsu Attack!" Dr' Tofu exclaimed after having only examining Akane for a moment, and gathering what little information he could about what had happened. Ranma and Akane's faces both went blank as they stared at the doctor in wonderment.

"What, what kind of attack is it, what does it do?" Ranma bursted out. He was concerned for Akane, and being forgotten was a highly painful feeling for him.

Before Tofu could respond, the clinic's door opened and a large panda made it's way in. "Mr. Saotome!" Akane's voice rang out, almost a knife through Ranma's chest. How could she remember his father, but forget him? It had to be that legendary Fang Grow technique, or whatever it was called.

The Panda made several gestures as if to communicate, but they went by without being understood. Without hesitation, Ranma approached the Panda, hit him once over the back of the head and glared at him. "Will you turn human already? We can't understand a thing you're telling us like that!"

It had taken a few moments, but eventually Ranma, Akane, and Tofu were gathered around a much more human Genma Saotome who began to explain things to them. "I saw the whole thing with my own eyes. It was incredible, she attacked from the rear. The speed of her hands was almost inhuman. I watched as in less then an instant she applied a shampoo to Akane's head, lathered with incredible vigor, then rinsed so quickly that had I blinked I'd have missed it. She even styled and dried Akane's hair. The entire process took 4 or 5 seconds tops."

"Incredible!" Tofu shot to his feet and then looked at Akane, this was truely amazing, very few doctors had had any chances to study an actual victim of the Sai Feng Heng Gow Shiatsu, as it was rarely used outside of the Chinese Amazonian lands.

"No wonder I felt so refreshed when I awoke." Akane stroked her long hair absently.

Ranma looked at Akane briefly, then his father, then the doctor. He took a deep breath, a slight moment of hesitation. "So, what does it do, this Sigh Fang whatever technique."

Tofu shook his head slightly as he approached his examination skeletal companion Betty and placed his hand on her skull. "The Sai Feng Heng Gow Shiatsu Attack... Using a mixture of Chinese herbs, massage of the skull, and pressure points upon the scalp, this dreaded technique can manipulate memory."

Ranma took a deep breath, then looked at Akane and placed his hands on her shoulders. "So, that's how you forgot about me."

"Just who are you?" Akane looked back at him quizically.

"There's gotta be a way to cure her Dr. Tofu, you know what it is, tell me please." Ranma had turned his attention back on the doctor and took a step towards him.

"We can't even begin to find a cure, unless we can get the herbal solution that was used on her." The Doctor rubbed Betty's skull absently and sighed slightly. "And, the chances of finding those herbs without the help of whoever did this to Akane are next to none."

Ranma blinked, then looked at Akane briefly, then Tofu, then Akane again. "I know what has to be done. Pops, if you see Shampoo, send her to the Tendo's dojo. Akane, we're going home, now." Ranma was never very forceful or assertive, except when something really bothered him, Shampoo had brought that out of him for the time being. He grabbed Akane's wrist and dragged her out of Tofu's clinic. Akane started to protest, but the aura she felt around Ranma at that moment led her to believe that was a bad idea.

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Akane had gone off on her own once they reached the Tendo household, it was all for the better anyways, Ranma had something very important to do before he could even begin to calm down, or rather, he had something he had to find. He was tearing through every dresser, every closet in the room he and his father shared looking for the object of his most obsessed affection. "Chise-chan! Where are you Chise-chan?!" The rest of the household did thier best to ignore him, it was too embarassing for any of them to acknowledge.

As Ranma dropped to his knees, ready to give up something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He tilted his head toward's his father's travel pack and spotted the golden curls of the Victorian doll that made up his life. "Chise-chan!!! I was so worried I'd lost you, I, I don't know what I'd have done without you." He held the doll to his cheek as he finally started to calm down a bit. Then his anger rose again, realizing his father had attempted to do away with the precious doll again.

He'd save those thoughts for later, he had to worry about Akane and Shampoo for now, that was far more important. He took a deep breath as he held Chise-chan to his chest, and headed towards Akane's room. As he raised his hand to knock on the door, he heard another familiar voice near the front entrence of the Tendo household. Akane could wait, that voice sounded like someone much more important to restoring Akane's memories.

And his assumptions were correct as he stepped into the main entry hallway to face Shampoo. He'd tucked Chise-chan away safely, he wasn't sure what Shampoo would try to do to the doll, but he wasn't about to risk it. He glared at the Amazon who had only a sly smile across her lips. Her voice broke the silence first. "Airen, Shampoo hear you look for her, want see her badly."

Ranma held his ground and took a deep breath before speaking back. "I want you to fix Akane."

"Why husband care so much about Akane, girl obstacle to Shampoo happiness, obstacles for killing. Shampoo no kill obstacle for husband." Her gaze became piercing and cold. "Husband so set on other woman, Shampoo erase her from husband's mind." She produced a bottle of shampoo and a comb.

Ranma smirked, he'd hoped Shampoo would try something like that, and pushed past her quickly before she could react. When she had finished a blink, Ranma was gone, though she heard a slight thump on the ground at her feet, followed by a strange weight. She looked down, and her expression changed completely.

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Ranma, without thinking had busted into Akane's room, grabbed her by the rist and dragged her to the bathroom. He had that same look she'd seen at Tofu's clinic, and it scared her, yet she didn't resist too much. Ranma began to vigorously shampoo her hair inside the bathroom, but after a few moment he'd realized he'd gone to far. Akane had ripped the sink from the wall and held it over her head with a threatening gaze at a rather sheepish looking, now female Ranma.

"What in the world?" As Akane stared in shock, Ranma shut off the water. "B-but, you were just a boy, n-now you're a girl??? Why?" Then pain filled her head as she tried to hard to place it all together, that, along with the mixture of the shampoo, and the techniques memory blocking effect.

As Akane passed out, the door to the bathroom busted open, Shampoo stepping through looking rather furious. She'd expected a male Ranma attempting to use the shampoo on Akane, the wrong shampoo of course, but he wouldn't know that. What she found instead was a red-head, one she had sworn to kill, one who was more important then the minor obstacle in the way of her happy honeymoon with her soon to be husband. "Girl-type Ranma!" Her gaze narrowed, her eyes went cold, her voice sharp and frozen as she almost completely changed from slightly ticked, to bloodthirsty. "Shampoo give Kiss of Death. Now you die."

Ranma gulped slightly, and dove through the secondary door into the bathroom and disappeared. Shampoo gave chase quickly, but upon entering found she was too slow, Ranma had gone into hiding. Truth be known, Ranma was watching her from the ceiling, and was fortunate the Amazon chose not to look up. Instead, she was focused slightly in a large obect clutched in her left hand.

Shampoo balled her right hand and punched the outer wall of the Furo, shattering it with little effort and heading out of the house to give chase to the red-head she'd sworn to kill. Ranma sighed in reliefe, then realized what that object had been as she reached to her pocket for Chise-chan. "Oh no, this isn't good. This isn't good at all."

Kasumi and Nabiki had come running when they heard the wall breaking, and pushed there way into the furo to see Ranma on his knees in a daze, and an unconscious Akane in the changing room behind her.

Kasumi ran to her fiance and shook her shoulder's slightly. "Oh my Ranma, what happened?"

"Sh-Shampoo has Chise-chan. She knows that the doll belongs to my girl side." She shivered slightly, and knew what trouble that could mean. "I, I must have dropped her when I grabbed for the shampoo, while I was still a boy. If, If she realizes that, she'll know we're the same person, she'll kill me."

Nabiki said nothing, watched in silence as a grin crept across her face. The fates had given her a rather nice little present, and the best part, she didn't have to do anything but sit back and watch, this was going to be good.


	12. Goodbye Shampoo

Chapter 12:

Goodbye Shampoo

Ranma sighed slightly as she moved back into the main hall of the Tendo house. She was upset, over the loss of the doll, and Akane's still missing memories. Somehow, she had to cure Akane, and it was aparent that the shampoo alone wasn't enough. The rest of the Tendo family was attending to Akane, who'd been out since the shampoo started to take effect, and do absolutely nothing. As Ranma looked up, he blinked in surprise seeing a familiar face in front of him. "Dr. Tofu!"

"Hello Ranma, I think I found a way to cure Akane"

Ranma raised a brow skeptically then nodded. "If it involves the shampoo that took her memory, then, we already tried that."

"Hmmm, let me see the bottle, if you still have it." Tofu offered his open palm to Ranma with a smile.

Ranma quietly offered the empty shampoo bottle and looked at the floor.

"Hmmm, I see, of course this shampoo wouldn't work, look at the number of the formula, "411", that just won't do, "411" is used to erase memory. What we need is formula "911". In fact, I have the formula for it right here." Tofu reached into his gi with a smile then procuded a paperback notepad and held it up. "With this, curing Akane will be a snap."

At that moment, Kasumi had been coming downstairs to inform Ranma of Akane's progress. She then smiled seeing Dr. Tofu and nodded her head slightly. "Oh, hello Dr. Tofu, I didn't know you were coming by."

Tofu's personality completely changed. All his intelligence went completely down the drain as his glassess fogged up and his vision became rather poor. His actions also became rather involuntary as he began to rip the notepad to shreds, Ranma grabbed her head in shock, and was unable to move. Tofu dropped the notebook confetti as he spoke. "Oh, h-hi Kasumi, fancy meeting you here."

"Well, I do live here Dr. Tofu." She giggled a bit and smiled at him, she never did quite understand him, he always seemed so strange, and funny, but he had a certain charm she admired, and she respected his skills as a doctor greatly. He'd taken care of her, and her family for years, though, for some reason, she couldn't understand why her family thought he was a serious guy, she just never saw it.

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Ranma sighed as he wandered aimlessly through the Nerima streets. He'd decided he was going to China, to find the proper shampoo no matter what. He shook his head remembering the reactions of everyone in the Tendo household as he made the proclamation. Most of them seemed rather cheerful, wanting gifts and what not, then there was Nabiki... Something about her seemed very off. Still, he'd likely bring her a present as well.

Then he stopped, seeing a bottle dangling between a pair of hands in front of his face. He read it aloud and almost went into a fit of elation. "911?" He dove for the bottle, which was pulled from his reach, and skidded face first across the sidewalk. As he stood, he saw Shampoo standing behind him holding the bottle in her left hand and the doll at her side in her right. "Give me that bottle Shampoo, and the doll"

"Why husband have girl Ranma's doll?" Her face was cold, calculating, almost viscious. She gave a death stare, one that Ranma had seen earlier when his girl form faced the Amazon. "Husband know woman Shampoo vow to kill, Shampoo kill husband too if husband protecting her."

Ranma took a step back and a gulp for air. So, she still hadn't placed the two together, but he still didn't like what was going on at the moment. He took a deep breath, and though it clashed his style and personality, he shot back at her with an almost commanding air about him. "Give me that shampoo Shampoo." His real self showed through for a moment as he sighed before letting the rest out. "I'll do almost anything for it."

"Really?" Shampoo's face brightened visibly, things couldn't exactly go any better for her at the moment then that.

"You have my word, as a Man. You know, as long as it's nothing like marrying you, or killing Akane." He hated this feeling, he hadn't felt powerless like this in a long time. "And I want that doll back too"

"Ok, Shampoo give doll and shampoo, but husband must kill girl Ranma." Her eyes had cooled again, she was happy, she now could have her beloved help her take vengeance on the woman who had more or less destroyed her life, and that other woman could easily be taken out later if necesary.

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"Shampoo doesn't know I'm the same person as this female Ranma. It took some doing though, but she agreed to me 'almost' killing female Ranma. I know we've had our issues in the past, and I know we've never been friends, but I'm asking you for your help, man to man. Please, beat me up, one last time Ryouga." Ranma sighed as he stared down the young boy who'd often bullied him growing up.

Ryouga crossed his arms and looked away from Ranma. "Why should I help you, sissy boy?"

"This isn't for me, this is for Akane."

"Why should you care if she's forgotten you, aren't you engaged to her sister anyways? Besides, why should I bother helping the man who ruined my life?" Ryouga stood and glared at Ranma.

"You're probably right, I should have known better then to ask a pig, I mean, it's not like you could beat me anyways, right? That is why it took you 4 days to get to that lot behind your house, you chickened out, right?" Ranma hated using these tactics, but it might prove necesary.

"What did you call me? What did you say???" Ryouga growled slightly and balled his fist, and Ranma could feel his fighting spirit finally starting to rise. Then Ryouga dove at Ranma with a closed fist strike and intent to severely injure the pig-tailed boy.

Ranma side-stepped instinctively to dodge, that hit would have likely shattered several bones anyways had he not dodged, and that was far more damage then Ranma was willing to take. He then blocked a kick that may have taken his head off, and ducked a backfist that carried the same intent.

The entire Tendo family, and one rather confused looking panda burst into the dojo upon hearing a loud crash from it a moment earlier, and were shocked to see Ryouga fighting Ranma, and the crater in the ground where Ryouga's first punch had landed. "Stand still so I can kill you like a man Ranma!"

"Who said you could kill me you idiot, I said almost kill." Ranma had blocked another attack by Ryouga, then tossed him across the dojo.

Akane dove between the two and shouted, "Stop this fighting, this is my families dojo and home, not a place for people to fight just for the hell of it!"

Ranma's eyes went wide seeing Akane jump between them. Ryouga had already started his bull charge at Ranma, and an unfortunate Akane was in his path. He'd committed too much, and saw no way of stopping in time to spare Akane an injury. Ranma's body vanished from it's spot. a thud sound echoed through the dojo, followed by a crash as a wall on the far side of the building seemed to explode. As the dust cleared, Ranma stood in front of Akane, in the path Ryouga had been charging, slowly pulling his foot away from a powerful kick.

"R-Ranma..." Akane's eyes were wide, she saw his back, a memory that shot straight to the surface, the same exact image of his first day at school, when he came to her rescue and ended the mass brawl she had faced upon arriving to school each day. This was the same thing, he shone in front of her as a prince.

Ranma blinked as he turned around and faced Akane. "Wait, what did you say?"

"Ranma, y-you save me?" She fell against him and hugged him tightly as tears streamed from her eyes.

The rest of the family watched with mixed emotions, Genma and Soun seemed the least affected by the scene, though Nabiki was vocally cursing another missed opportunity to see Ranma die, and Kasumi had begun to plot against Akane again.

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Night came and went, the Tendo household had quieted down, and breakfast had been served. The meal was the standard fare, rice, miso, and fish. As Ranma ate, he noticed Akane seeming to avoid eating much more after a single bite, and shook his head. "You really should stop dieting Akane, not eating can make you ill."

Akane said nothing, eating at this point could prove to make her dead, she had realized only after chewing a bite of fish with an off taste that she had again crossed her eldest sister and earned her wrath. She thought for a moment, then smiled at Ranma. "It's ok, I'm just not that hungry this morning."

"Nihao!" Shampoo had appeared in the Tendo's back yard, she'd made the arrangement for Ranma to deliver the near dead female Ranma to her that morning at the Tendo household in exchange for the shampoo and the doll. She had a habit of punctuality, though Ranma had almost wished she'd just go away forever.

Ranma's hand hit his forehead as Akane stood up and glared coldly at Shampoo. "What are you doing here? After that stunt you pulled on me, I should beat you senseless." She took a step towards the Amazon with a deathglare across her face.

Shampoo responded to Akane's glare with one of her own. "You remember Ranma? You stubborn girl. Too bad, you no remember then you no have to die." Shampoo dove towards Akane to attack with her free hand as she held Chise-chan in her other.

Ranma appeared between the two, catching Shampoo's attack in his left hand, and taking his doll back from Shampoo with his right. "Shampoo, stop! I'm not going to let you hurt Akane."

"Nihao Airen, you I love!" Rather then fight against him, she let him take the doll and threw her free hand around him in a hug.

Ranma took a deep breath, then pushed Shampoo away and glared at her, he'd grown tired enough of her, and he wanted this to end, one way or another. "Listen to me Shampoo, don't hurt Akane!"

"But she obstacle, obstacle is for killing." Shampoo's single-mindedness was almost admirable, yet at the same time, quite bothersome.

"Looks like I have no choice. I'll have to tell you the truth. Akane, get me a bucket of water." He cast her a look that told her to stay quiet and o what he asked. She promptly responded as Ranma stepped out into the grass. Akane then handed him the bucket, and after a moment's hesitation he poured the cold water over himself, his body becoming much more feminine, and his hair becoming quite red.

Shampoo's eyes went wide at the transformation, then became more feral. "G-girl type Ranma?!"

"That's right Shampoo, I've tried to keep it a secret, but that male Ranma is just a disguise. I'm really a girl, so uh, you know, I'm afraid you and I just can't be together."

Shampoo reeled in shock for a moment, then leapt at Ranma, her fist drawn to release a punch at the red-head's head that would land with the force of a runaway train, Ranma could feel her killing intent almost skyrocket. Before the blow came though, Shampoo stopped. She looked at Ranma, her face had changed completely and tears were flowing from her eyes. She lowered her fist, turned from Ranma and started to slowly walk away. "Bie Liao..."

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"Apparently, it means "We'll never meet again" or something like that. I'm just glad she didn't take you with her Chise-chan." Ranma sat quietly in his room looking at the doll he held aloft as he rested comfrotably on his back and breathed out a slight sigh of relief. "Well, that's one less problem for us to deal with at least."

The doll simply stared back at Ranma, unmoving, and with no voice.


	13. Curse of the Black Rose

Chapter 13:

Curse of the Black Rose

Ranma cuddled her doll close to her chest as she stared in excitement at the extra scoop of ice cream that had been placed on her cone. She'd found there were several benefits to her girl form, one of which was that many young men would toss in a little extra when she went out for a treat. Ranma wasn't above taking advantage, as she didn't really like spending money all that much. Still, it was a slightly special occasion, she'd gotten rid of the amazon, likely forever, and only had to deal with the feud between Kasumi and Akane. Then again, she had no real knowledge of such a feud, she just found it odd that Kasumi had started talking to Akane less, and that Akane had stopped eating at home. In any case, life was good for one Ranma Saotome.

She paused a bit on her way home though, as she saw, and recognized three girls whom she'd recognized from school, and a young woman with an odd, black hairstyle facing off against the three. She watched quietly for a moment and held Chise-chan up to do the same as she finished off her ice cream cone.

"Furinken High students I presume?" The girl with the ponytail on the side of her head spoke to the trio she faced with a slight smirk on her lips. She set a bag down as she knelt and rummaged through it's contents. "We need not rush this, the Gymnastics contest isn't until next week." She then stood back up, facing the trio and holding a gymnast's ribbon in her hands. "Is that not correct?"

"Ambushing us before the contest, and you call that fair? You're the reason we can't compete in the contest!" One of the three Furiken girls shouted at her as all three charged at her with various pieces of gymnastics equipment brandished as weaponry.

The girl with the ponytail smirked as she twirled her ribbon to attack the three with blinding speed, whipping them like sled dogs. "Have you not yet learned?" Her attack ceased as the trio dropped and attempted to nurse thier wounds. "If not, then take this!" She brought her hand back to ready another barrage upon the girls.

As the ribbon shot forth, Ranma had appeared in it's path and caught it. "Look lady, you already won, don't you think that's enough?"

"You caught my ribbon?" She looked at Ranma almost as if amazed. "Hmm, you are no ordinary girl, are you?"

As her voice finished, she ripped her ribbon free and readied to attack, then a rather solid object hit her in the back of the head, spun upwards into the air, and Ranma caught it with a smile. "Yay Chise-chan! You won your first fight!" Ranma had tossed the doll at the ponytail wearing woman before leaping to the rescue, and Chise-chan had hit her feet first with a rather painful thud. Ranma coddled the doll, and checked her legs to make sure she hadn't been broken in any way, she'd have never forgiven herself if she'd hurt Chise-chan, but still, it seemed the most effective way of ending the fight without having to hit a girl, Ranma hated things like that.

The woman slowly got up to her feet and glared at Ranma, who took a full fighting stance after setting down the dolly. The girl in the side-worn ponytail looked at Ranma with a smirk. "You are quite formidable. I am the rose of St. Hebereke High School. Star of the gymnastsics world, Kodachi, The Black Rose." She tossed a black rose at Ranma, then took off like a scalded dog as she faded off into the distance, laughing like an escaped mental patient.

Ranma sighed, then tended to her classmates.

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"The entire gymnastics club was beat up?" Akane stared at the trio in shock and disbelief as Ranma sat on the bed slightly behind her and played with Chise-chan.

One of the gymnast trio seemed to speak up for the entire group. "Now we'll have to forfeit the tournament. Please Akane, you're the only one who can help us."

"Are you saying you want me to enter this tournament?" Akane looked at the girls with a bit of confusion.

A second member spoke up, with more urgency then the first. "Please Akane, you're the only one we can ask. See, this tournament is in Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics."

"Wait, what?" Ranma set the doll down and leaned forward a bit to listen to the girls, if it was martial arts, he was sure Akane could do it. "What's that?"

The third member of the trio took to speaking this time. "It's Furinken High versus St. Heberek High, using just gymnastics tools and martial arts techniques."

"Well, I don't really understand what it is, but, I'll do it." Akane had a serious look on her face, but as Ranma had seen, she was a kind-hearted girl, one who couldn't not help those in front of her in need.

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Ranma sighed, he was watching Akane carefully as she practiced with some of the tools for the competition, he observed she'd need a lot of practice. "And, you're sure you don't want me to help? I mean, I may not know what to do with the tools really, but a sparring partner couldn't hurt, right?"

Akane sighed as she landed from a spiral and a pair of bowling pin-like objects hit the ground several feet away from her on both sides. "I'm fine Ranma. Besides, you said it yourself, you wouldn't know what to do with the tools. Maybe I'd be better with the ribbon." Akane sighed again as she reached for a ribbon. Once in her hand, she spun on the ball of her left foot, and attempted to twirl the ribbon about her. That also failed as she fell face first to the ground, tied up, and appearing like some poor schoolgirl in a bad tentacle film. Though, something a few feet in front of her surprised her as she opened her eyes.

Ranma saw it too, and had jumped onto a suit of armor made for kendo practice as if he was a woman who just saw a rat. "Keep that thing away from me!!!!"

Akane blinked as she stood up, after untying herself, then picked up the little black piglet that had wandered into the training hall. "P-Chan!" She cuddled the pig to her chest with a smile. "Where did you go? I thought you'd wandered off.

Ranma stayed up atop the armor shuddering slightly. "W-why are you being so nice to that pig, he's going to eat me!!!"

The pig glared daggers at Ranma, who gulped in responce. Akane sighed a bit as she set the pig down. "Oh come on Ranma, he's just a little pig, he's not going to hurt anyone. Isn't that right P-Chan?" The pig blushed, it wasn't used to affection, though truth be told, he rather hated the name, and wasn't ever quite sure how he got it. Ranma didn't much like it either, but would hold his opinion for fear of the pig killing him. "Just play nice with Ranma, ok P-Chan?" Akane set the pig down then picked up a hoop. "Ok, last time before I give up."

The pig wandered closer to Ranma, then sat down to watch Akane, slowly Ranma worked up the courage to sit next to the pig, and observe Akane's training. He leaned closer to the pig. "What are you doing here Ryouga? I know it's not to kill me, or else you wouldn't be a pig."

The pig looked up at Ranma, or rather glared hatefully, then looked back at Akane and blushed slightly as it let out a bwee sound.

Ranma blinked a bit, then looked at Akane. "Yeah, I guess she is rather cute, if you want, I can talk to her for ya, let her know how ya feel and all."

The pig looked up at Ranma, it was blatently confused, then glared daggers at him again, not forgetting his hatred. After a moment, it went back to watching Akane, who had just stumbled on a landing and broken the hoop. Ranma said nothing as Akane went on a frustration fueled rampage. The pig simply shook it's head and wandered off.

Soun had been taking a bath when a littl black piglet wandered in on him. His confusion was rather obvious as he watched the pig calmly, slowly move towards the bath, hop up onto the wall of the tub, then dive in. He watched the water as air bubbles surfaced, raised an eyebrow, then went completely off his mind as he saw a young, black-haired boy shoot up nude from the water. He said nothing, his shock too great as the boy, just as calmly exited the bathroom.

"Come on Ranma, I'm never gonna get this, just let me quit, ok?" Akane sighed a bit as she looked at her sister's fiance, who had slowly become her best friend.

"You can't give up Akane, the competition is in 3 days, and you promised our classmates you'd do this." Ranma, despite his efforts never was that great at cheering people up.

"How about I train you?" Ranma and Akane turned thier attention to the training hall's doorway where Ryouga was standing, casually leaning against the door in a pose that looked like something out of those shoujo manga that Akane, and Ranma, though he'd never admit to it, was so into reading all the time.

"Ryouga? You'd do that for me?" Akane stared at him in disbelief.

"You've shown me great kindness Akane, of course I would." He then glanced at Ranma.

Ranma said nothing, he was confused, this wasn't like Ryouga, then again, it wasn't like Akane knew he was the pig. Still, Ranma wondered why she seemed so fond of the pig when he wandered in earlier, then passed it off. he was certain she's only seen the pig the one time, when they treated Ryouga, shortly before Ranma discovered Ryouga's curse, and had an incident with Nabiki.

"I don't know what I could have done Ryouga, but if you'll help me, then I'll just have to let you help me." Akane was confused, she didn't recall any kindness towards Ryouga, in fact, her only real memories of him involved his grudge against Ranma.

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Several hours had passed, and both Ryouga and Akane were out of breath, and about ready to collapse. Ryouga gave Akane a thumbs up with his one free hand as she held the ribbon in her hand tightly, mostly binding Ryouga's movements except for the one arm. "Good job Akane, I think you're about ready to fight for real.

Ranma sat against the wall playing with Chise-chan and watching in mostly silence, though he'd occasionally speak to his beloved doll. "I can't believe Ryouga's being so nice. I've never seen him like this, have you Chise-chan?" Ranma smiled as his gaze went back to Ryouga and Akane. "Yeah, you're right, it's really not like Ryouga to be this nice, I wonder what's going on with him."

Akane meanwhile dropped the ribbon and fell to one knee panting for breath. "I, I couldn't have done it without your help Ryouga, thanks."

"Don't mention it, Anything for you Akane. But, I should be going, it is getting late." Ryouga turned slowly as the ribbon loosened from his body and headed for the exit.

Ranma was watching him like a hawk, and got a rather lecherous grin on the pig-boy's face. "I don't like that look Chise-chan." Ranma never took his eyes off Ryouga, at least not until he was out of sight. "Yeah, I think he's up to something too Chise-chan."

A few moments later, a little black pig wandered back into the training hall, and straight towards Akane. Ranma again never took his eyes off the pig, though the look on his face was more surprise then anything.

"P-chan! Did you watch me practice?" Akane smiled as she picked up the pig and left the training hall with it in her arms. She was smiling happily all the while as she stroked the pig's head between his ears.

Ranma watched this, until Akane was out of view. "He's definately up to something, and I don't think I like where this is going." Chise-chan remained motionless.


	14. The Midnight Rose

Chapter 14:

The Midnight Rose

It was late, the entire Tendo household was asleep, except for a young man who inched quietly along the wall of the house's second floor towards an occupied room. He carried a Victorian stlye dolly in his arms as he slowly opened the door and peeked into the room, finding just what he had expected, a little black piglet nestled snugly against Akane's bosom. "Why that little..." Ranma took a deep breath, it'd do him no good to get angry. "Sorry Chise-chan, just one favor." Ranma crept into the room, and with all his skill as a martial artist deftly replaced the piglet with the doll and left the room.

Moments later he tossed the pig to the ground in the dojo and emptied the contents of a hot water kettle onto it, revealing his fanged rival. Ryouga wasn't too pleased about being awoken like that, nor was he all that happy about seeing Ranma. "What do you want sissy-boy?"

"The hell you talking about pervert! Snuggling up to Akane like that."

"Is that jealousy I hear Ranma?"

"What? No!!! It's just, what do you think you're doing sleeping with Akane you big jerk?" Ranma glared at Ryouga who replied with a smirk. As Ranma readied himself to fight for Akane's honor however, a shrill shriek filled the night air.

In Akane's room, a Victorian doll had taken a partial impact to one of it's legs from a mallet-wielding girl, a mallet strike that had narrowly missed Akane.

A moment passed before Ranma and a still naked Ryouga burst into Akane's room. Ranma spotted Kodachi with a mallet and Akane avoiding a second swing. Then he saw his doll. "Chise-chan!" Ranma dove for the damaged doll, tripping Kodachi accidentally as he did. He coddled the doll as he grabbed it, and Kodachi fell face first to the floor, giving Akane a chance to grab the mallet."

"Well well, it seems you're better then I gave you credit for miss Akane Tendo." Kodachi stood and turned to the door, running smack into the naked Ryouga and falling backwards to her bottom. She looked up and blushed brightly seeing the rather attentive male form before her, and without saying a word, she shot out the door past him, leaving a cloud of black rose petals in Akane's room.

Akane then stared at Ryouga in disbelief as Kodachi fled the room and quickly turned around to see Ranma against a wall in tears over his broken doll. Ryouga, sensing Akane's discomfort, realized he was naked, and fled down the hall in a similar fashion that Kodachi had. Akane took a deep breath, then spoke. "Why was I holding your doll and not my pig when I woke up?"

Ranma looked up at Akane, saw a slight bit of anger in her eyes, and inched against the wall. "I-it's not what you think Akane, th-that pig."

"What about the pig? Where is P-chan?"

"H-he's safe, I promise." Ranma cuddled his doll tightly. "B-but poor Chise-chan..."

Akane sighed and took a step toward Ranma, then collapsed over her left leg and grabbed her ankle. "Ow, my ankle. I must have twisted it avoiding that woman's attack."

"But, the competition's tomorrow Akane, are you going to be able to compete?"

Akane shook her head and placed a hand on Ranma's shoulder. "You have to do it for me Ranma, there's no one else who can take my place. I'll forgive you for taking my pig if you do this."

Ranma sighed, it almost felt like blackmail, but he silently agreed and handed Chise-chan to Akane. "Only if you promise to find someone to repair Chise-chan."

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Morning came quickly. After the brief discussion with Akane the night before, Ranma had found Ryouga paralyzed on the Tendo rooftop. While Ranma normally would have been fine leaving Ryouga there, he had helped him off the roof, and made him a deal. Ryouga smiled a bit as he had accepted the deal, and was all grins as the sun had finally risen and both he and Ranma were exhausted from constant training for the competition.

"I, I owe you for this Ryouga."

"I wouldn't pass on a deal like that Ranma, just remember, P-chan can stay with Akane whenever he wants. A man doesn't go back on his words, you got that Sissy-boy?" Ryouga set down the hoop he'd been using and smirked at Ranma.

"A deal is a deal, perverted pig." Ranma chuckled as both he and Ryouga headed for the furo. The demeanor between the two, while still hostile, had become a bit less shakey, and a bit more friendly. Akane had taken note of that as she passed the pair on her way to the breakfast table.

Several minutes later, both Ranma and Ryouga headed out to the dining room together. Ranma took a seat next to Kasumi, who dutifully fed him like the good wife she'd one day be, and Ryouga absent-mindedly sat next to Akane, who was trying her best not to watch Ranma and her sister.

"So, Akane tells me you'll be competing in her place at the competition today Ranma, that's so kind of you to look after my sister like that." Kasumi smiled as she served a bowl of rice to Ryouga, and another bowl of special rice to Akane, who just as soon wouldn't be eating breakfast again.

"Well, it's the least I could do really, she's always so helpful at school and all." Ranma blushed slightly as Kasumi placed a large collection of rice into Ranma's mouth with a smile. "You don't have to do that Kasumi, I can feed myself."

"Oh, but I want to Ranma, it's my duty as your future wife." Kasumi's smile was infectious and irresistable. Ranma simply melted and allowed her to have her way. "Oh, are you not hungry Akane?"

"That's okay Kasumi, I'm still on a diet." Akane would rather not risk poisoning again, especially not before Ranma took her place in the competition, she at least wanted to see Ranma beat that Black Rose.

"Well, if you don't want it, I'll take your portion Akane." Ryouga smiled and reached for the bowl, Akane didn't seem to notice.

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"You can't be serious Ranma, you put your name on the competition application."

"What's the big deal Akane, what name would I put on it?" Ranma blinked in confusion.

"I guess you're right, but there are a lot of people at school who are bright enough to realize it's you." Akane sighed a bit as she helped Ranma get dressed for the competition. Her stomach was rumbling loudly from not eating, and she just hoped there'd be a snack vendor or something during the competition. "By the way, have you seen Ryouga, he said he'd help us prepare."

"Not since we got here, he said he wasn't feeling good and ran off to the bathroom." Ranma finished getting dressed and headed for the arena entrance. "Don't worry about him though Akane, I'm the one who's gotta fight here."

"I know, but I'm still a little worried about you Ranma, you didn't sleep last night, and that girl is crazy."

"It'll all work out Akane, this is Martial Arts, I can do this. Just sit back and watch." Ranma gave her a thumbs up and smiled as she walked out into the arena. "And take care of Chise-chan for me."

"Oh Ranma, be careful." Akane sighed whistfully as she watched the girl's back, and blushed heavily. She looked over at the doll sitting next to Ranma's locker and smiled. The competition was about to start, and she didn't want to miss any of it.


End file.
